Page 39: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2013)

layer temperature reveals warming during the Summer sea- son and cooling during Winter. Nowadays the site is managed by the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands -PLOCAN- through a multidisciplinary set of in-situ monitoring autono-mous platforms, where unmanned surface and underwater ve- hicles develop a special role. PLOCAN is a multi-purpose public consortium infrastruc-ture engaged for research, technology development and in- novation in the marine and maritime sectors. Its main goal is to promote long-term and sustainable ocean observations, providing a cost-effective bend of services as test site, obser- vatory, underwater vehicles base, as well as training and in- novation hub. In this regards, PLOCAN focuses on international and in- terdisciplinary networking and partnership activities with key-baseline research institutions and companies in the Þ eld of marine and maritime technology. The norwegian company Christian Michelsen Research -CMR- Instrumentation, repre-sents a suitable example in this sense. CMR is a highly spe- cialized company for the design and development of ground- breaking ocean instrumentation specially addressed for harsh environments, being one of its products the autonomous un- manned ocean vessel, SailBuoy. The SailBuoy Technology The SailBuoy is a small unmanned wind-driven ocean ves- sel able to travelling across the oceans for extended periods of time. It navigates autonomously, controlled by Iridium satellite link communications, transmitting data in real time underway. Since Iridium is a 2-way communication system, commands such as new waypoints, tracks and sensor param- www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 39MTR #3 (34-49).indd 39MTR #3 (34-49).indd 394/4/2013 9:23:17 AM4/4/2013 9:23:17 AM