Page 58: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2022)

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Silicon Sensing www.siliconsensing.com

Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd. is a market leader in silicon

MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers and inertial measurement systems, focusing on products delivering high performance, ultra-reliability and affordability. The company has supplied over 25 million MEMS sensors to thousands of customers worldwide and has a heritage in inertial sensing that can be traced back to the birth of the gyroscope over 100 years ago.

Silicon Sensing has a number of new products suited to the rigors of the maritime environment. The DMU41 is a 9 de- grees of freedom (DoF) inertial measurement unit (IMU). packaged unit or an OEM item. For use in severe environ-

Measuring 50x50x50mm and weighing 200g, its volume ments such as subsea downhole drilling, the company’s new is 54% lower and weighs 42% less than its predecessor the CRS39A upgrades the established CRS39 gyro. CRS39A in-

DMU30. For those looking for a single axis gyro, the com- cludes a move to a single board from two, reducing the unit’s pany’s latest CRH03 high-performance/low-noise gyroscope mass by 40%. This allows far more easy installation in space- consumes 30% less power than its predecessor and incorpo- limited applications such as the 25mm diameter cylinders typ- rates improvements in both micro electro-mechanical systems ically used in downhole drilling equipment. Supporting this (MEMS) and electronics - with new drive electronics and im- latest generation of products is a family of established sensors provements to the sensor head. CRH03 is available in ? ve rate and systems including the highly successful DMU11 IMU. ranges, including a new option of 10 degrees per second. It Proven in maritime use, this 6 DoF IMU delivers complete is highly tolerant to external vibration, delivers excellent bias motion sensing in three-dimensional space with performance instability and angle random walk and can be delivered as a calibrated over its full rated temperature range.

Ocean Aero https://www.oceanaero.com/

Ten years ago, Ocean Aero’s unique hybrid sail- boat-submarine was a novel idea being developed in a San Diego garage. Today, the company has a grow- ing ? eet of vehicles on the water and a $14 million funding injection.

Ocean Aero’s commercial offering is the Triton, a 4.4 m-long vehicle with a 3 m-high retractable wing sail and 1.5 m-deep keel. It has 200W solar panels embedded on the hull and a 4kWh lithium-ion battery to support underwater operations. On the surface, it operates as a sail boat, using wind for forward pro- pulsion while charging its batteries. If there’s bad weather, above sea state 5 for example, or it wants company typically recommends bringing them in every 90 to avoid detection or gather data, it can then fold together and days for routine maintenance and to remove marine growth.

retract its wing sail into the hull and ? ood the hull to dive. Most of the Ocean Aero staff and management team have

Underwater, it has a ballast system to support dives down to come in over the last two years to take the company forward 200 m. It can also use a dynamic buoyancy system to loiter as a commercial enterprise. A big part of that was a series C or operate something like a glider, and/or its dual thrusters to fund raise last year, which netted the company $14 million. navigate at up to 2kts. To return to sail mode, it returns to the To underpin its growth, the company has also moved from surface, where a bilge pump type system pumps out the ? ood- San Diego to the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi, where it will ed hull to return it to a sail boat. again move into a 63,000 sq. ft. facility by the end of this

On the surface, they can run for months and months, but the year.

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