Page 48: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2011)

48MTRJuly/August2011 THE MARINE TECHNOLOGY REPORTER 100SeeByte creates software for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) and remotely operated vehicles (ROV), enabling them to identify manmade underwa- ter objects in frontline war zones or carry out inspection and mainte- nance duties for the offshore oil and gas industry. SeeByte was founded in 2001 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the aim of bringing to market the technologies designed at the Ocean Systems Laboratory of Heriot-Watt University. SeeByte has since established a global network to service its expand- ing customer market by adding an operations base in San Diego and appointing sales representatives in Houston, Japan and New Zealand. SeeByte is credited with conducting the first autonomous inspection ofriser pipes using ROVs without direct pilot control. The company also manufactured the first AUV with sonar and video and the first commercially-available automatic manmade underwater object-identifying software using side-scan. Technology Profile The flagship product currently offered by SeeByte is SeeTrack: an automatic decision-making software designed to control a vehicles actions by gathering and integrating data using an open-architecture platform. Other SeeByte products are as fol- lows: ?SeeTrack Military Showcased in a multitude of military situations, SeeTrack Military is currently known as the de facto technology for theworlds navies. This product is pre- dominantly used for the identifica-tion of manmade underwater objects, search and recovery missions, and enhancing the capabilities ofremote underwater vehicles, marine mammals and divers. ?SeeTrack CoPilot Offering fea- tures like auto-hover, straightforward point-and-click mouse interface capabilities, and technology designedto anticipate changing sea condi-tions, CoPilot can highlight and track targets of interest from the sonar screen in subsea operations, carrying out the same inspection sev- eral times to compare the data. ?SeeTrack AutoTracker Thissoftware enables AUVs to detect and track a pipeline using existing pay-load sensors. AutoTracker was designed to provide improved inspection data and time-reductions. ?SeeTrack Professional A situa-tional awareness and performance analysis tool for port and coastal security, local police forces and bespoke seabed inspections.?SeeTrack Recovery Manages assets data and provides a real-time picture of how the components work togetherAlong with creating new solutions- based technology, SeeByte continual- ly works to boost"plug-and-play" capabilities with new software mod- ules on current offerings. SeeByte's SeeTrack Military technology remains a popular tool with world- wide militaries and security person-nel due to its expandable platform.Hard Problems, Soft Solutions SeeByte, Ltd.Orchard Brae House 30 Queensferry RoadEdinburgh, Scotland, EH4 2HS Tel: +44 (0) 131 447 4200 Fax: +44 (0) 0131 447 4911Website: www.seebyte.com Email: info@ seebyte.com CEO: Bob BlackVP US Operations: Jon Wood Sales Manager: Ioseba Tena Head of Engineering: Scott ReedNumber of Employees: 40 SeeByte CEO Bob Black has helpedSeeByte deliver on the promise of its technologywith a number of worldfirsts? since it emerged from the halls of academia, Heriot-Watt University.