Page 32: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2011)

our current customers were using ROVs – or even considering them.

Rodocker, SeaBotix We wish there was more time in the day and an unlimited budget to develop. There are so many new product concepts we have and not enough resources to bring them to market as fast as we would like.

Grant, Saab Seaeye We used to be highly dependent on the oil and gas industry, but now our market growth is more evenly spread amongst other sectors, notably the defense market.

How is your company investing today to better serve the subsea market?

Rodocker, SeaBotix With the recent acquisition by Bolt Technologies

SeaBotix will be in a better position to invest in new product develop- ment. Bolt Technologies has a long history in the subsea market that will further strengthen our goals.

Anderson, OceanServer We split our

R&D investment between hardware development and software utilities to simplify and improve the operational model for the operator.

Heinz, iRobot This year, we are making improvements to Seaglider to provide enhanced buoyancy capabili- ties that will allow for operation over a greater range of ocean densities. We are also improving Seaglider’s payload capacity and sensor choices. In addi- tion, we continue to develop Ranger for market entry in 2012.

Kelly, Bluefin To better serve the market, Bluefin has been investing in a new state-of-the-art facility of which it occupied in November 2010. The water-front building pro- vides ample space for manufacturing and engineering functions and several new capabilities that will accommo- date increased productions rates anticipated for the upcoming growth phase of AUV technology.

Manley, Liquid Robotics Liquid

Robotics is providing improved con- nectivity to subsea systems through our “gateway” capability. By integrat- ing active acoustic systems in the

Wave Glider we will provide teleme- try, and in some cases positioning, to all manner of undersea systems.

Mobile vehicles and fixed installa- tions will all benefit from this new approach to connectivity undersea.

Systems that have been “out of touch” will now be more readily accessible to operators on the surface, and on

Scott Bentley

In my opinion this is the availability of small, comparatively inexpensive multibeam sonars such as those pioneered by

BlueView Technologies. The “video like” returns allow operators with little experience to use them to navigate in water with almost no visibility.

Video Ray 32 MTR March 2011