Swiss underwater robotics company Hydromea and Norwegian state-owned energy firm Equinor have achieved the first-ever real-time, high-bandwidth wireless transmission of data from the ocean floor directly to the cloud.
Hydromea’s SWiG-ready LUMA Free-Space Optical (FSO) devices transmitted high volumes of data collected from the seabed wirelessly to Equinor’s cloud infrastructure using the Norwegian company’s DEEPNET network through a LUMA WLAN hotspot, enabling asset integrity engineers and underwater intervention drone (UID) pilots with immediate access.
According to the Swiss company, the LUMA platform leverages high-speed, low-latency optical communication technology capable of transmitting data at up to 10 Mbps, even at depths of up to 6,000 meters, reducing the costs, risks, and environmental footprint associated with traditional subsea monitoring.
“This is an important milestone for Hydromea, working with Equinor to show how real-time connectivity for untethered vehicles and data harvesting from sensors will flow wirelessly in real time into an asset operator’s cloud for immediate insights into operational matters,” said Igor Martin , CEO of Hydromea.