Page 44: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2016)

Vehicles

Durval Tavares, President & CEO, Aquabotix

Last month MTR spent some time with Durval Tavares, President and CEO or Aquabotix, for insights on his company’s push to increase penetration of its innovative HV PRO fur- ther, faster into the commercial ROV market.

Please provide a brief personal and profession- al background.

I graduated from UMass with a degree in Electrical Engi- neering, and worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in

Newport, RI for 20 years, followed by 10 years with Fidelity

Investments. I founded Aquabotix in March of 2011.

Looking back, how did you come to be inter- ested in and involved in the subsea technology business?

I’ve always had a passion for the ocean. After I graduated from engineering school and went to work for the naval labo- ratories my passion was ignited and I have continued profes- sional and personal exploration of the ocean since then.

From the time you started the company, what The HydroView Pro ROV is available with ? ve to were your goals for the company and the brand?

eight motors, a host of tether and sensor op- I want Aquabotix to be globally recognized as an innovator tions, grabber arm and two pounds of payload of accessible underwater technology capability.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your prod- ucts are more widely used in the recreational Geographically, where do you see opportunity?

market. Can you talk speci? cally to the deci- We see opportunity across the world - more than half of sion – when & why – that was taken to broaden our business is international. We are especially excited about your presence in the commercial sector.

some emerging markets including South America and Asia Our intent was always to have a full product offering which Paci? c.

included the commercial sector. We started selling in the rec- reational market to begin building brand awareness and to test The continued low price of energy affects all businesses. How is it affecting yours?

the product which was followed by hardening the vehicles for the commercial sector. This affects our business in a few ways. Companies are What we’ve done is be innovative by taking emerging tech- looking for more affordable products. Low price are also nology from the land and transforming it for the underwater forcing companies to look at new ways of operating to lower space. Our vehicles operate on a completely digital platform costs.

that is fully scalable to grow as the missions grow.

If you had to pinpoint a single (non-vehicle spe-

What attributes of the vehicle do you consider ci? c) technology that will have the greatest particularly attractive to the professional? positive impact on AUV ef? ciency and perfor- Accessibility: our vehicles are easy to operate and simple to mance in the coming year(s), what would that technology be and why?

deploy with only one operator Hybrid: The Hybrid ARV offers dual functionality in one Increased Battery Power: many of the AUVs today use vehicle. It has the ? exibility to be used as an autonomous un- Lithium technology for batteries. The industry needs more derwater vehicle for wide range searches then with the attach- power in a smaller form factor. Increased battery power will ment of the tether it can be used as a remote operated vehicle result in improved ef? ciency, performance and increased mis- for detailed inspection. sion time.

January/February 2016 44

MTR

MTR #1 (34-49).indd 44 1/21/2016 2:17:36 PM