Page 46: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2016)

Technology Pro? les

Cathx Ocean Aims to Help You See

Subsea 20/20

The Cathx Ocean mission is as simple as it is complex: to change how subsea video and imaging are captured, stored and viewed. Leading the way is Michael Flynn, Chief Technology Of? cer and

Co-Founder of Cathx Ocean, who spent some time with Marine Technology Reporter recently at

Oceans ‘15 to explain the rationale behind its latest subsea imaging system.

By Greg Trauthwein athx Ocean was founded in 2009 by Adrian Boyle and could be tailored for different uses

Michael Flynn and it has grown steadily at its design “One of the key aspects of the (camera system) is something

Cand manufacturing facility based in Kildare, Ireland. that we call sequential imaging,” said Flynn. Essentially, as a

Cathx Ocean ? rst entered the subsea market with its range unit, the camera system, lights and lasers work in concert to of professional dive lights which are highly regarded by navy adjust to the ever changing conditions at varying depths, with and law enforcement, subsea construction and oceanographic the aim of providing the clearest images, the best data.

research divers worldwide. At the time, LED lighting was just Flynn noted that the system has been particularly of interest starting to make headway into the subsea space, “so to start for the larger, faster moving AUVs, such as MMT’s Surveyor the company, we designed and launched a high quality LED as well as Hugins and Blue? ns. lighting system,” said Flynn. The Cathx Ocean System has been installed on an MMT

In 2012, the Cathx LED lighting range for subsea vehicles Surveyor for more than a year.

was introduced to the market. Following the success of these With all of the technology and enhanced capability, Flynn lighting products and recognizing the need for improvements notes that the premise of Cathx Ocean’s high-tech offering in subsea imaging and measurement, the company began de- is really pretty simple … to provide a more ef? cient, cost- signing a subsea machine vision camera and laser system. effective means to survey underwater assets.

Successful trials of this system were completed in the North

Sea in 2014. The System

In short, today, Cathx Ocean has designed from the ground The L1000 Laser Pro? ling System includes the Cathx up a subsea camera integrated with a laser system with the Ocean M12 A1000 Stills camera and Green Line Laser. The goal of providing superior underwater imaging. Equally criti- Green Line Laser is a 520nm long range laser that produces cal to the quality of the lighting, camera and laser system is a straight line with uniform intensity over a long range. The the integration of all into a comprehensive, automated pack- system can capture UHD Still images and laser pro? les in a age designed to automate manual tasks. rapid sequence providing laser xyz data and co-registered still images.

Built from the Ground Up A laser system for range and scale can easily be set up using

The job to design, engineer and build a highly automated the M12 Camera facing cownwards with a Green Line Laser subsea imaging system is not one to be taken lightly, particu- in parallel. larly when built from the ground up. “We set about to build A pre-calibrated laser system can be con? gured for high a system, taking the best of sensors, electronics, lens systems density 3D point cloud data capture using a Green Line Laser and onboard storage and processing,” said Flynn. “Personally facing downward and an M12 A 1000 Camera at a suitable

I looked long and hard at the options available and found the angle for optimum measurement and within the physical lim- whole package wasn’t available off the shelf.” its of the vehicle.

The mission: Build a smart subsea imaging solution that www.cathxocean.com

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