STR Invests in Multibeam Sonar System

Subsea Technology and Rentals (STR), a multidisciplinary technology expert specializing in the design, production and rental of innovative marine survey equipment, announced the delivery of the first ever deep water rated, Titanium housed NORBIT iWBMS wideband multibeam sonar system. The curved array wideband multibeam sonar will be employed by STR customers for wide swath bathymetric survey operations from surface vessels…

US Navy Tests UUV for Mine-hunting Operations

The General Dynamics Mission Systems Knifefish team completed a comprehensive evaluation of Knifefish, an autonomous surface mine countermeasure (SMCM) unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV). In coordination with the U.S. Navy, the test events took place off the coast of Boston using submerged Navy mine test targets. The evaluation represents a significant milestone in the Knifefish program and demonstrates the UUV’s capability to detect and classify potential mines…

Bellingham Named Director of WHOI Robotics Center

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has appointed James Bellingham as the first director of its Center for Marine Robotics. Bellingham will come to WHOI in early fall 2014 from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), where he was director of engineering and most recently chief technologist. Bellingham earned his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was founder and manager of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Laboratory.

Danelec DM100 VDR Type Approved to New IMO Standard

Danelec Marine A/S announced introduction of their new-generation DM100 VDR, the first VDR on the market to be type-approved and Wheelmarked under the new IMO standard. The DM100 VDR has been type approved by Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) in Germany. The BSH type approval certifies that the Danelec DM100 VDR meets all the revised International Maritime Organization (IMO) performance standards and technical requirements…

NORBIT Wins Orders from Jan De Nul

NORBIT informs it has secured orders from Jan De Nul Group, through its Benelux dealer Seabed BV, for several tightly integrated all-in-one turnkey multibeam sonar systems. These compact survey systems allow for fast set-to-work on any sized survey platform while allowing for highest quality broadband FM data from a forgiving curved receiver array. The systems each include a full Inertial Navigation…

Saab Seaeye Selects Acoustics for Sabertooth Hybrid Vehicle

Subsea technology company Sonardyne International Ltd has delivered its latest consignment of AvTrak 6 acoustic communications and navigation hardware to defence and security company Saab’s subsidiary Saab Seaeye. Offered as an optional-fit sensor on the Sabertooth hybrid AUV/ROV, AvTrak 6 forms part of the vehicle’s integrated navigation and communications system. It allows mission updates, status checking and navigation aiding to be wirelessly sent to and from the vehicle…

Greensea: Redefining the Connection between Man and Machine

Ben Kinnaman and his Greensea Systems crew are on a mission to have its software backbone become the standard of subsea robotics and the marine industry, bringing a paradigm change in the relationship between man and machine. From his Richmond, Vermont headquarters, he explains. To kick things off, can you share with our readers how you came to found and own Greensea? I grew up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina; I grew up on the water.

Leidos Constructing AUV Anti-Submarine Warfare Tracker

National security, health & engineering solutions company, Leidos, says it has under construction an autonomous unmanned vessel designed to track quiet diesel-electric submarines spanning miles of ocean depths for months at a time with minimal human input, and due for testing at sea in 2015. Construction on the ACTUV (Autonomous Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel) is under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) program for the design…

New Gyro Changeover System

Teledyne TSS launched a new gyrocompass changeover system that protects navigation equipment against the danger of a sudden loss of heading input. The new system can be connected to up to four gyrocompasses and has been designed to automatically switch its throughput to that of another gyro should the principal one fail. The system can also be used to enable the manual changeover of gyro throughput if required…

Coast Survey Improves Access to Wrecks Data

Knowing the locations of shipwrecks and other obstructions has always been important for safe navigation ‒ but mariners are not the only people who want to know about wrecks. They are also important for marine archeology, recreational diving, salvage operations, and fishing, among other interests. Now, Coast Survey has improved our Wrecks and Obstructions Database, giving everyone easy access to new records to explore.

STR First to Order Sonardyne Syrinx DVL

Sonardyne International Ltd., UK, announced that Subsea Technology and Rentals Ltd (STR), a multi-disciplinary technology expert specializing in the design, production and rental of innovative marine survey equipment, has become the first company to invest in its new Syrinx Doppler Velocity Log (DVL). The order for two 4,000 meter depth rated units was placed at the recent Ocean Business exhibition…

New Survey Vessel to Fugro

Fugro America, built by Thoma-Sea Marine Construction in Louisiana, was delivered to Fugro in mid-March. The new vessel is designed to Fugro’s specifications, fitted with the latest geophysical survey equipment and houses some of the most advanced instrumentation in the field. Fugro Americas is optimized for working in the Gulf of Mexico, but is also suited for operations in other geographical areas…

Diginonymous, GW Partner for Offshore Medical Software

Software developer Diginonymous LLC and Maritime Medical Access Program at The George Washington University (GW) Medical Faculty Associates have teamed up to offer an advanced shipboard video telemedicine service for the international maritime industry to help clients meet the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) 2006 requirements for crew healthcare. The GW Maritime Medical Access Program and Diginonymous developed the Digi+Doc service…

Nautilus Announces Closing of Rights Offering

Nautilus Minerals Inc. announced that it has received gross proceeds of C$40 million before expenses as a result of the successful closing of its rights offering through the issuance of 200,000,000 common shares at a subscription price of C$0.20 per common share. Under the rights offering, 125,485,507 common shares were issued under the initial subscription with 25,136,966 common shares issued under the additional subscription.

Greensea Upgrades SeaView's ROV

Greensea Systems, Inc., a developer of technology for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, installed its advanced ROV control system, Balefire, on a Saab Seaeye Falcon DR owned by SeaView Systems, Inc. SeaView supported NOAA earlier this summer in the multibeam survey of several shipwrecks in Thunderbay National Marine Sanctuary, Lake Huron, Michigan. To successfully complete the survey, it was required the vehicle be able to correlate navigation data and multibeam data accurately…

3D Printed Prototypes for Kraken

Axis Prototypes helped shortened the product development cycle for a marine technology company Kraken Sonar Inc. 3D printing technology or additive manufacturing (AM) gives manufacturers the ability to churn our prototypes of with simple to complex geometries quickly and cost-effectively. Axis Prototypes, a 3d printing company based in Montreal, recently demonstrated these benefits when a marine technology company needed parts under a tight deadline. Kraken Sonar Inc.

TerraSond Awarded 5-year NOAA Survey Contract

TerraSond has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide hydrographic surveying services anywhere in the U.S under a new five-year contract, the company announced today. Under the new contract beginning in 2015, TerraSond will provide comprehensive, modern hydrographic surveys in assigned areas to support NOAA’s nautical charting mission, which includes the updating of charts in critical areas for navigation safety.

CNO Tours Newest Oceanographic Survey Ship

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. John Richardson toured the Navy's newest oceanographic survey ship, USNS Maury (T-AGS 66), April 8 to gain a better understanding of the oceanographic information the ship provides to the Department of Defense. The CNO is the senior military officer of the Department of the Navy and is responsible for the command, utilization of resources and operating efficiency of the Navy.

IMCA Publishes Introduction to Inertial Navigation

The increased use of inertial navigation systems (INS), particularly in support of offshore survey, installation and inspection tasks, has emphasized the need for a general introduction and outline of the use of inertial navigation technology used offshore. The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published ‘An Introduction to Inertial Navigation Systems’ (IMCA S 022) produced for…

HoOK R&D Project Examines Offshore Crane Ops

With funding from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and supported by “Projektträger Jülich” (PTJ) [project sponsors Jülich], over the next three years Hamburg University of Technology, Mareval AG Hamburg and the maritime engineering company HeavyLift@Sea will conduct research into the improvement of tools for the simulation of offshore crane operations. The project is named HoOK - Hochseeoperationen mit Kranen [Offshore Operations with Cranes].