Saab Seaeye: Meeting the Challenges of Renewables

The renewable industry presents special challenges for underwater robotic vehicle operations with its shallow waters, high currents, intricate structures and, in some locations, unexploded ordnance. Saab Seaeye has found good success in the sector with a range of vehicles specially suited for the challenging tasks involved in building and maintaining the structures and interconnections. With a range of robotic systems that are ideally suited for the sector.

CoPilot Retrofitted onto Falcon ROV

SeeByte, a creator of smart software for unmanned maritime systems, announced that Heriot-Watt University has integrated CoPilot with its Seaeye Falcon 1256, an observation-class ROV. With assistance from Heriot-Watt University’s Ocean Systems Laboratory personnel, the SeeByte team integrated and tuned the system to operate with a Teledyne RDI Workhorse Navigator 600 KHz DVL. The work was conducted over a two day period including testing in Heriot-Watt University’s wave tank.

Optech to Present at OI China

Optech announced that it will attend the Oceanology International China 2014 conference in Shanghai, September 3-5, where Dr. Joong Yong Park will discuss coastal mapping trends and how new advanced data fusion techniques using data from a high-power green lidar and a hyperspectral sensor are providing unprecedented coastal environment information. Optech will also be exhibiting with sister Teledyne Marine companies in booth B50, where Dr. Park, Optech, Inc.

Policy Uncertainty Threatens to Slow Renewable Energy Momentum

IEA forecast sees renewable power as a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, but facing growing risks to deployment over the medium term. The expansion of renewable energy will slow over the next five years unless policy uncertainty is diminished, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today in its third annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report. According to the report…

Z-Boat Shipped to University of Washington Tacoma

Teledyne Oceanscience has shipped a custom Z-Boat 1800-RP to The University of Washington Tacoma to be used by Dr. Dan Shugar, Assistant Professor of Geoscience, when he heads out on two remote locations in Alaska and Canada this summer. The custom integration for the University of Washington Tacoma included the Rugged Z-Boat 1800RP, Teledyne Odom Hydrographic MB2 Multibeam, Teledyne RD Instruments RiverPro ADCP, a camera, IMU and onboard computer.

A Tool for Advancing Environmental Academic Research

Researchers at the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao, China, are using the Signature55 current profiler to improve the understanding of El Niño and advance their environmental academic research. “Information about Western Boundary Currents in the lower latitudes of the Pacific and their influence on low frequency pulsing of warm currents are vital for scientific research. But so far we have had insufficient…

Hydroid, Kongsberg Launch New Offshore Survey/Exploration AUV

Hydroid, Inc., a manufacturer of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), in partnership with its parent company, Kongsberg Maritime, announced the release of the new Munin AUV. Designed jointly by the two companies, the Munin combines the size and deployability of the Hydroid Remus 600 AUV with the navigation systems and user interface of the Kongsberg Hugin AUV to give offshore users a capable and reliable solution for their survey and exploration needs.

MacArtney Inline Termination for Andritz Hydro Hammerfest

MacArtney is announced that tidal power array developer and supplier Andritz Hydro Hammerfest has recently taken delivery of a MacArtney Medium Voltage Inline Termination. Due to the link with the lunar cycle, tidal currents can be predicted in advance and with stable energy flow and fixed maintenance windows, there are reasons to believe that tidal power will become a significant part of the future renewable energy mix.

Collaboration Enhances Oil Spill Research

The University of South Florida’s (USF) College of Marine Science announced a new partnership with Agilent Technologies and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) for analytical chemistry equipment to study oil spills. Funded by GoMRI and Agilent’s Research Support Program, the partnership will allow access to cutting-edge analytical instrumentation to better understand the effects of oil as well as other emerging contaminants in the environment.

STR Invests in Marine Navigation Systems

Subsea Technology & Rentals Ltd (STR); global specialists in the design, production and rental of advanced subsea technology for the offshore energy industry; informs it has invested in the latest generation of marine navigation systems with the acquisition of two Teledyne TSS Saturn 10 units. The Saturn fiber optic gyrocompass capitalizes on more than a century’s experience in marine navigation. Teledyne…

iXBlue to Exhibit at OI China 2014

iXBlue, a global supplier of civil and defense solutions for navigation, positioning and imaging, said it will exhibit a number of its solutions during the Oceanology International China Exposition. The event takes place September 3-5, 2014 at INTEX Shanghai. With offices around the globe, including China, iXBlue serves thousands of customers in applications that include offshore oil and gas, construction and dredging…

MTR100 '13 Xsens

Xsens is a leader in MEMS IMUs, VRUs and AHRSs in the $1000-$5000 class. These products regularly go head to head with FOGs when it comes to integration in maritime applications. The 4th generation MTi that has been introduced in 2012 has proven itself in new applications. Xsens is a developer and global supplier of 3D motion tracking products and solutions, based on MEMS inertial technology. The company operates in four business segments: Industrial Applications…

Fugro Enables Safer Drilling for BP in Strong Currents

Fugro has provided a spectrum of services to BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC (bpTT) to allow safe drilling and completion of five subsea wells in an area of strong currents. The services include wellhead motion (fatigue) monitoring, metocean measurements and positioning services. The positioning activities were carried out onboard the drilling vessel as well as on the three supporting anchor handling tugs (one tug had subsea acoustic ROV positioning).

MTR100 '13 MacArtney Underwater Technology Group

Gl. Sales mgr. Sales mgr. Sales mgr. Sales mgr. Sales mgr. Sales mgr. The MacArtney Underwater Technology Group is a global supplier of underwater technology specializing in design, manufacture, sales and service of a wide range of systems to offshore operators, surveyors, the renewable energy sector, ocean sciences and navies across the world. MacArtney’s systems and components are backed by an international network of subsidiaries and representatives, providing local access to global service.

Unique Group to Double Global Subsea, Offshore Business

Unique Group has set in place measures to double its size and global infrastructure by 2019 through capital investment, acquisitions and expansion into key markets. With a current turnover in excess of $100m, the company has restructured its worldwide organisation into five new business units, to capitalise on Unique Group’s current and future market sectors. The first expansion into new sectors is…

MAST, WESMAR Partner on Maritime Security Technology

Maritime security company MAST announced it has formed a new partnership with marine sonar systems provider WESMAR with the goal of protecting super yachts and the maritime industry from security risks. Phil Cable, CEO of MAST, commented, “Global threats to assets and personnel operating in the maritime environment are complex and continually evolving. MAST said it has been developing and designing bespoke security packages for the maritime industry and global yacht clients since 2008…

BSEE Extends Comment Period for Proposed Offshore Safety Systems Rule

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced today a 45-day extension to the public comment period for the proposed rule on offshore oil and natural gas production safety systems. Comments will now be accepted through Dec. 5, 2013. The proposed rule will revise 30 CFR 250 subpart H, Oil and Gas Production Safety Systems, to address recent technological advances. This section of the regulations has not had a major revision since it was first published in 1988.

General Dynamics Tests U.S. Navy UUVs

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems completed the comprehensive risk reduction program for the U.S. Navy’s Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) program. Designed to discover any potential systems defect early on in the program’s development phase, the configuration item test (CIT) successfully verified key components within the UUV system including the hardware architecture and critical areas of hardware and software integration.

CTI SonarWiz Supports Multi-Beam and Interferometric Bathymetry Systems

ChesapeakeTechnology Inc. (CTI), a company in real-time acquisition and GIS based processing software for seafloor mapping, announced an advance to its flagship software SonarWiz with the addition of post-processing for multi-beam echo sounder and interferometric bathymetry systems. SonarWiz now offers data processing for both multi-beam and interferometric bathymetric systems with present support for processing bathymetry file types of ALL, HSX, JSF, R2S, RDF, S7K, SXI, and XTF.

EdgeTech Upgrades its Sonar Software

EdgeTech, producer of high resolution sonar imaging systems and underwater technology, has released a new version of its Discover sonar software. The new software coverage mapper module has advanced navigation features allowing the setup of survey lines with a left/right steering indicator to assist in survey line control. Background navigation charts and other imagery such as multibeam bathymetry and satellite imagery can be layered or blended with individual transparency control…