Page 27: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2019)

Miniaturization “Just think what has happened to comput- ers the last 20 years. Very little of this has found its way into subsea technology. The growth of small ROVs and the cost levels is one important driver for miniaturiaation.

Small ROVs are not able to physically carry large devices and the customers of small ROVs do not have the budgets to purchase super expensive products that were once made for the oil and gas industry.”

Oliver Skisland, Water Linked

Photo: Elaine Maslin small but smart ROV. to use lots of hardware, but we wanted can identify a point of interest and touch

The Seasam weighs in at 9kg and is this to be as cheap as possible. So, for it, if that’s what’s needed.” The vehicle the missing link between a small and less than the price of one high-end po- can either be tethered, if you want live compact but piloted ROV and bigger sitioning sensor we have a system that feedback, and untethered. “Also, it can

ROVs packed with kit that cost a lot. uses cheaper sensors but then fuses them provide fully autonomous diver follow-

Nicolas Gambini, the Marseille-based and uses algorithms to magnify the data ing or dam or ship hull inspection. For a company’s co-founder and CEO, says so that it’s close to most perfect sensors. small ship, say 10m long, it doesn’t even

NotiloPlus is enabling a small vehicle “This means [with the Seasam] we need a map, it can by itself identify a with a lot of smarts through computing can use simple acoustic sensors for po- rudder etc. For a long hull, you can tell power. “Machine learning and software sitioning and a camera for computer vi- it the shape and length and then it choses allows you to do positioning and sens- sion. The computer vision means that its own pattern for an inspection.” ing,” he says. “For positioning, you need in the frame of what the drone sees it The ? rm, which does its testing in www.marinetechnologynews.com

Marine Technology Reporter 27

MTR #9 (18-33).indd 27 12/2/2019 11:56:30 AM