Ashtead Technology Upgrades Tech Center to Support Renewables and Decom Work. Launches Recruitment Drive

UK-based subsea technology and services provider Ashtead Technology said Tuesday it has invested £ 1million to develop a new R&D and engineering facility in Aberdeenshire to support renewables and decommissioning work. "Upgrading an existing site at Thainstone Business Park, the new 15,000 ft2 technology center located in Inverurie features an engineering, research, and development suite, a dedicated equipment trial and testing zone…

TECH FILE: Acoustic Tech Used to Understand Climate Change in the Arctic

Major changes are occurring in the ocean. Climate change and subsequent melting sea ice are not necessarily good changes. Why are acoustic Doppler current profilers an invaluable tool to get a complete picture of the Arctic’s changing wave conditions in the context of climate change?In the Arctic, the end-of-summer sea ice extent in 2020 was the second-lowest in the last 42 years.“The ice used to melt out in June or July. Now it melts out in May. It used to come back in September or October.

C&C Technologies Wins NOAA Survey Contract

C & C Technologies has been awarded a new five-year contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to perform hydrographic surveys throughout U.S. coastal waters. “Our work with NOAA began in 1998 surveying San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz Island and the Oakland Bay Bridge,” stated Thomas Chance, President of C & C Technologies, Inc. This is now the third five-year survey contract NOAA has awarded to C & C.

Rovco Awarded Funding for 3D Visualization Project

Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) and hydrographic survey company Rovco predicts its integrated technology that utilizes advanced 3D computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) systems with ROV platforms could transform the way offshore inspections are carried out and reduce costs by millions each year.The U.K. based firm, which has been working to advance the technology, has recently been awarded further funding by the U.K.’s innovation agency…

New All-in-one Optical Incremental Encoder from Renishaw

Available to order from August 2016, VIONiCplus is Renishaw's new optical incremental encoder system launched as part of the VIONiC digital all-in-one encoder series. The VIONiC design combines all necessary interpolation and signal processing inside the readhead and eliminates the requirement for additional external interfaces. To this end, Renishaw said it has developed a new Versatile Interpolation ASIC (VIA) chip to perform all of the functions originally executed by the interface.

FarSounder Secures Navy Contract

FarSounder Introduces 3D Navigation Systems through the U.S. FarSounder, Inc. has been awarded a contract to provide FarSounder-1000 systems for two U.S. Navy transferred OSPREY Class Mine Hunter Coastal (MHC) Vessels. The systems were sold by FarSounder's dealer Voyager Maritime Alliance Group of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. via their customer, VSE Corporation. VSE's delivery order is under a Foreign Military…

Laing Appointed NSRI Director

The National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI) has appointed Tony Laing as its new director of research and market acceleration. Bringing more than 35 years’ experience, Laing will be tasked with ensuring the UK’s subsea technology needs are understood and met within an increasingly diverse business environment and the associated complex innovation and funding landscape. Laing has been an independent consultant within the oil and gas industry since 2015…

Xodus Strengthens APAC Team

Xodus Group’s Perth office has won more than A$3.5 million (£2million) in new contracts over the last six months. Xodus’ Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has had significant success in the growth of its decommissioning business, both in Australia and South-East Asia, where the company has established relationships with several key players. The company has also enhanced its digital production optimization and monitoring tools.

Top Five Trends in Offshore Wind

As technologies mature and dramatic cost-cutting continues, the future is looking bright for offshore wind. Below are five trends to keep an eye on.1. Follow the LeaderOffshore wind’s established leader, Europe, will continue to show the way forward and build capacity. At the end of 2016, nearly 88 percent of the world’s offshore wind installations were located in European waters. In 2017, Europe saw a record 3…

Huntington Ingalls Industries Building Unmanned Systems Hub

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is building a new hub for unmanned systems prototyping, production and testing to meet growing demand from the U.S. Navy for autonomous and uncrewed systems.The purpose-built Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence will include two buildings totaling over 150,000 square feet constructed on a 20-acre campus in Hampton, Va., the U.S.'s largest military shipbuilder said in announcing the center's groundbreaking on Tuesday.“With U.S.

Soil Research Unearths Collecting Point for Plastics

Collaborative research team, led by KAUST scientists, reveals a history of plastic sequestration in mangrove ecosystems.Global plastic production began to rise precipitously around 1950. Since that time production has grown at around 8.5% annually. Unfortunately, due to poor recapture and recycling globally, much of that plastic has ended up in the world’s oceans.Strangely, locating plastic with surveys of the world’s oceans has proven difficult.

RRS Sir David Attenborough Starts Sea Trials

The U.K.’s most advanced polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough left Cammell Laird shipyard Wednesday to commence two weeks of technical sea trials ahead of scheduled delivery to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in November.“Although the vessel’s construction is now complete, trials are a critical and final part of the program as they allow our engineers and the ship’s crew to put the vessel through its paces at sea…

BG Group & the FlatFish AUV

The development of AUVs capable of being launched from FPSOs or actually being docked at the seafloor next to the subsea systems has been an industry goal for some years and offers a solution to two major problems: making deepwater subsea inspection become a simple task and decreasing the related costs. MTR’s correspondent in Brazil spoke to Rosane Zagatti, BG Group’s Subsea Technology Manager, about its FlatFish AUV project…

Teledyne CARIS Unveils Bathy DataBASE 5.2

Teledyne CARIS has released Bathy DataBASE 5.2, which introduces enhanced tools for validating and creating chart features from lidar surveys as well as new bathymetry compilation techniques.This latest version includes an updated workflow process found in BASE Editor designed for performing both quality control and feature set building from lidar data. Bring LAS/LAZ data into the BASE Editor environment to assess quality, adjust classification, and compare against other sources.

Subnero Will Be at OCEANS 2014

Singapore-headquartered underwater network and communications company Subnero announced it will be at OCEANS 2014 from September 14-19, 2014 in St John’s, NL, Canada. Subnero focuses on enhancing underwater networks and communications. It offers high-performance underwater communications, navigation, monitoring and sensing solutions for researchers as well as commercial deployments. At the crux of these solutions is the flexible Subnero underwater modem.

MTR 100: QPS

No. QPS has since 1986 been headquartered in The Netherlands, and is an independent software company, now with subsidiary offices in the U.S. Canada and UK. In 2011 QPS merged with IVS3D so uniting QPS QINSy with QPS Fledermaus. In 2012 QPS became a member of the SAAB (Sweden) group of companies (Security and Defence Solutions). Quality Positioning Services (QPS) makes industry leading software for collection, post processing and visualization of maritime geomatic data.

MTR 100: Southwest Electronic Energy

No. The Case: Southwest Electronic Energy  is celebrating 50 years of providing innovative custom energy management solutions, particularly lithium and lithium-ion battery technology for oil and gas and subsea applications. SWE is at the forefront of providing advanced technology battery solutions, helping make offshore oil and gas more accessible and affordable. Today, SWE serves more than 300 customers…

WASSP Sounder Technology Receives a $10.6m R&D Growth Grant

New Zealand based ENL Group, the parent company of  Electronic Navigation Ltd, has announced that it has received a NZD$15m  ($10.6m) R&D Growth Grant from Callaghan Innovation to assist with ongoing investment in its globally recognized and New Zealand made WASSP Multibeam Sounder. Callaghan Innovation is a New Zealand government agency that helps businesses succeed through technology and R&D. ENL…

ISE Ink RCN Mine Detection Equipment Contract

International Submarine Engineering (ISE) awarded the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) contract by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA). ISE will provide two commercial off-the-shelf, high speed Aurora Towfish, which will be used to support mine detection missions and route survey operations for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels. The Aurora towfish will include modifications to integrate new sensors and navigation equipment…

ROV Roundtable: Market Experts Weigh In

The evolution of capable Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) moves in tandem with a burgeoning array of missions available. This month MTR spoke with Matt Bates of Saab Seaeye, Chris Gibson of Videoray, and Alasdair Murrie and Peter Ranelli from Teledyne Marine Systems for their insights on the market moving forward. Describe the trajectory of ROV use over the past five years. Bates, Saab Seaeye We have…