A new company, 4D Ocean, has been launched to provide autonomous survey services to the offshore renewable energy sector.
The newly established company will provide survey solutions to the seabed mapping community as a dedicated ASV, AUV and UAV operator.
4D Ocean provides autonomous survey services for hydrographic survey, coastal engineering, habitat mapping and pipeline/cable surveys.
Duncan Mallace , 4D Ocean’s founder and Managing Director, said: “It is similar to the early days of multibeam sonars, everyone sees that autonomous survey is a great idea and the way ahead but are reluctant to invest or don’t have the technological in-house capability. 4D Ocean has been formed to provide the systems and personnel and to drive the use of autonomous systems for seabed mapping.”
The initial ASV that 4D Ocean will use is the SeaRobotics USV 2.5, which is equipped with an R2Sonic 2020 multibeam sonar, Applanix Wavemaster Inertial system and an autonomous SVP winch.
To help with mapping the coastal zone, 4D Ocean will also be using the senseFly eBee Plus RTK vehicle.