Page 40: of Marine Technology Magazine (June 2015)

Sail Buoy

In looking at your vessel and its capabilities, rank the top markets and/or niches you see it serving best, with short descriptions explaining why.

• Acoustic data retrieval from subsea instruments in real time: Acoustic communications enable continuous data collection with a huge potential impact on research (data recovery from conventional moorings) and oil-gas in- dustry (monitoring of leakage, corrosion and pig - logging).

Data retrieval provides operators and scientists with valu- able and timely information, and further increases security and reduces risk of pollution, emissions and economic loss.

• Wave measurements: Wave measurements with spatial and temporal ? exibility is a huge advantage for offshore oil and gas operations. From the science perspective measure- ments are scarce, and near shore regions are particularly important and undersampled. • Oil spill monitoring and detection: In situ mapping and tracking of oil concentration in low visibility and poor weather conditions is a signi? cant asset because present re- mote sensing operations for monitoring of oil slicks are hin- dered by poor visibility, high sea state and wind conditions • Environmental monitoring and water quality: Sail- buoy can be ? tted with sensors for water quality measure- ments, including conductivity, temperature sensor, oxygen optode and a ? uorometer. Applications include detection of hydrocarbons, algae or chlorophyll-a activity, water turbid- ity, dissolved organic matter or chemical dyes. High-quality measurements of sea surface temperature and salinity over vast regions can be used to verify satellite remote sensing measurements, and to constrain numerical models.

What did you see in the world … in the autonomous vessel world … that told you that this was a good What was the greatest challenge in bringing this ve- time to invest in a new system.

hicle from a concept to reality?

The investment of the system has been going on for The greatest technical challenge was to enable it to 10 years, however we now see that AUVs, UAVs and Gild- ers are becoming widely used and the market now realises navigate in storm and hurricane conditions and to withstand the severe weather in the north sea for months on end. Since that autonomous vehicles can provide cost effective and risk the Sailbuoy is a new design for a new market it was a great reducing solutions.

challenge to get funding for further development. It was dif- ? cult to convince people that autonomous vessels is the way of the future. We received great help from The Norwegian

When you look at the world – by region or market

Research council and internal funding at CMR to bring this niche – where do you see opportunity and why?

vehicle to market.

Basically the Sailbuoy is well adapted for all open

What do you envision will be the greatest challenge in ocean areas, including large inland lakes.

bringing this vehicle from reality to market success?

However the Sailbuoy is best used in areas with low shipping density, to avoid the risk of collision and theft. It is also well The challenge is to educate people about the advan- suited for the high latitudes due to its unique features of power tages of using autonomous vehicles. The market is quite con- consumption and robustness.

June 2015

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