Page 39: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2016)

Iver3

Autonomous

Underwater the equivalent capacity of the brain of a The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, mouse. Scientists estimate that we are launched in December 2015, is a $7

Vehicles rapidly approaching the rate of calcula- million competition incentivizing tions needed to equal that of the human teams to develop autonomous technol- brain (1016 calculations per second). ogies for high-resolution deep-sea ? oor

As faster computers help us design bet- mapping and high-de? nition imagery. ter technologies, we can incorporate One of the recognized market failures these technologies into our lives and in mapping the deep-sea (or, in fact, in have a substantial potential impact on collecting any meaningful and exten- changing our lives for the better. sive data at scale from the deep-sea)

As technology gets faster, cheaper, has been the expense of operating ves- and smaller, a single individual can sels at sea. The Shell Ocean Discovery have access to things today that only XPrize is allowing only shore-based the biggest governments had access to and aerial deployments; encouraging

Rapid Data Collection For in the past. We are seeing exponential innovations in existing deployment advances in sensor technologies, arti- techniques and incentivizing the devel-

Coastal Applications ? cial intelligence, robotics, synthetic opment of emerging air-sea drone tech- biology, virtual reality, 3D printing to nologies. Such technologies will pro- name a few. Collectively, we are poised vide us faster and easier access to areas to be able to address some of the great- that are remote from the coast. Another est challenges we face through these area where exponential technologies advances in technology. In keeping are being encouraged for adaptation to with innovations in other ? elds, marine the marine environment is in imaging. technology has also been evolving rap- How we view an object and capture it idly and will continue to do so as more for posterity is evolving rapidly as vir- of these exponential technologies are tual reality, augmented reality, and 3D adapted for use in the marine environ- printing become more prevalent. ment. Included in the Shell Ocean Discov-

Less than 5% of the ocean has been ery XPrize is a National Oceanic and explored, but with exponential technol- Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ogies on the rise, we can look forward $1 Million Bonus Prize, to develop to changing that in the next few years. pioneering technology that can autono-

Side Scan

Imagine a world where we know, with mously track an underwater biological

Bathy the same level of detail, what is at the or chemical signal to its source. Merg- bottom of the ocean as we know what ing possible advancements in lab-on-

Water Quality is on land. a-chip, in material sciences, and in

Magnetometer

Prizes have long been used as a arti? cial intelligence, such underwa- mechanism to incentivize the develop- ter robots could be deployed from the ment of breakthrough technologies to shore in the future on search missions tackle grand challenges and address to locate hydrothermal vents, biologi- market failures. For example, in 1714, cal hotspots, or even ? nd planes and the Longitude Prize resulted in the vessels lost at sea. marine chronometer; in 1795, a Prize The Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize offered by Napolean for food preser- is part of the XPrize Ocean Initiative vation resulted in the canning process; – a commitment that XPrize made to the Prize offered in 1919 by Raymond launch ? ve ocean prizes to incentivize

Orteig kick-started the private aviation the development of technologies we industry; and, the Ansari XPrize won need to put us on an unstoppable path in 2004 started the private space ? ight to a healthy, valued, and understood www.ocean-server.com industry, now valued in excess of $3bn. ocean. In 2010, within 15 months of the www.marinetechnologynews.com +1 508-678-0550

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