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ter’s ‘Eight Great Technologies’ initiative, the MRIC has been small marine technology businesses, so we’re con? dent we operational since the summer of 2015. Several companies, in- have an offering that works. The Center provides a true hub cluding marine scienti? c instruments specialist Planet Ocean for marine technology development and we believe that it will

Ltd, unmanned vehicles manufacturer ASV, and sensor soft- attract business from all over the world.” ware developer SeeByte Ltd, have already taken space within He added: “It is really good to be welcoming SeeByte to the the Center, which provides of? ce and testing facilities along Marine Robotics Innovation Center, being a leading player in with access to specialist instrumentation. The National Ocean- the control of autonomous assets, and a partner to many of the ography Center (NOC) has been working with industrial and companies we engage with. We ourselves have collaborated academic specialists on the development of unmanned vehi- with SeeByte on several R&D projects to date, and having cles, battery design and operational procedures, and recently them on site will stimulate further collaboration in the future. announced the provision of advanced training programs for Both organisations have key areas of expertise, that when

PhD engineers in these areas. combined, will help to bring about exciting new innovations

Kevin Forshaw, Associate Director, Innovation and Enter- for the sector.

prise at the NOC, stated: “We believe that truly great innova- “We are also very pleased to welcome ASV into the Innova- tion happens when great minds meet and ideas can be brought tion Center here - a company at the leading edge of autono- to life. The Marine Robotics Innovation Center is the place mous surface vehicle development for an emerging global for that to happen. We recently saw two fantastic new autono- market. We are already collaborating with ASV, looking to mous vehicles built out of our collaboration with businesses, develop highly innovative platforms and systems for use by a and we’re at the start of several exciting new projects that look variety of end-users in science and survey, oil and gas, defense set to repeat this success.” and other offshore industries. Having representatives from the

Commenting on Planet Ocean’s take-up of space at the Cen- company on-site will only increase the opportunity for further ter, Forshaw stated: “This really is just the beginning. We have collaboration in the future, and we welcome this wholeheart- already seen the effect working with the NOC can have on edly.”

Developed by ASV, the C-Enduro is a long-endurance autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) used to safely and cost-effectively collect data at sea. The vehicle is shown here on a sea trial off Oban, Scotland.

(Photo: ASV)

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