SeeByte, a provider of smart software for unmanned maritime systems, has entered a collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The agreement will see SeeByte develop tools to help pilot a fleet of gliders.
As a result of UK Robot and Autonomous Systems funding, the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) group in NOC has recently acquired a large fleet of gliders. These gliders are manufactured by two different companies, Teledyne and Kongsberg, and each has a separate interface and processing tools. The separate interfaces increase both operator training requirements and operational complexity.
Additions to the SeeTrack Professional software suite will allow NOC to use a common interface for all the gliders. Operators will be able to improve planning and monitoring procedures. By combining all the mission plans and monitoring in a single work station, NOC will be able to manage larger fleets of gliders without putting additional strain on the operators. Data from these missions will be consolidated on a shared database, allowing data to be easily analysed.
Dr Maaten Furlong, Head of MARS group at NOC , said: “At NOC we are very pleased to announce this partnership with SeeByte. This looks to be a game-changing solution which will transform the way in which we manage our growing fleet of gliders.”
SeeTrack Professional is an open-architecture platform solution for rapid on-site analysis and data fusion that can be easily adapted for specific user needs. Developed as a mission-planning, monitoring, post-processing and reporting tool, this software technology has been successfully deployed on numerous surveys, military and security operations and scientific experiments.
Press Release, September 17, 2014