A year after becoming an associate member of the National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC) Marine Robotics Innovation Centre, Sonardyne has upgraded its membership to become a full partner.
Sonardyne’s relationship with the NOC extends back over nearly two decades when it began supplying the NOC’s research ships with Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) acoustic tracking technology.
More recently, the NOC and Sonardyne have worked together on the Energy Technology Institute’s (ETI) Carbon Capture and Storage Measurement, Monitoring and Verification technology demonstrator project, as well as the Autonomous Surface Sub-Surface Survey System (ASSSS) funded by Innovate UK.
On February 1, NOC, Sonardyne and fellow innovation centre partner company, ASV Ltd, kicked off a further Innovate UK funded project to undertake feasibility trials of ASSSS as an Autonomous Pipeline Survey System (APSS). The innovation centre provides an environment for academia and technology companies such as Sonardyne to cooperate and develop advanced robotic systems for the underwater environment. As such, it has already facilitated the ETI, ASSSS and APSS projects, while the NOC and Sonardyne look forward to generating future collaborative and technically innovative projects.
Adam Schink, Marine Robotics Innovation Centre manager at the NOC, said: “Our relationship with Sonardyne is a proven example of UK industry and the public sector working together to generate mutually beneficial returns. The current Innovate UK funded project to develop an autonomous surface/ sub-surface survey system is showing strong pull from multiple industrial partners and has planned demonstrations and technology development in 2017 and beyond.”
Geraint West, global business manager – Oceanographic at Sonardyne, added: “Becoming a full Partner of the Marine Robotics Innovation Centre cements our close relationship with the NOC in developing advanced robotic solutions to meet a myriad of challenges facing academic, industry and defence users of the world’s oceans.”