Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2021)

Government Shipbuilding

Read this page in Pdf, Flash or Html5 edition of February 2021 Maritime Reporter Magazine

AUTONOMY “In building Armada, we really tried to address that. The biggest change is scale. A 21 m vessel can carry multiple sensors, the right type of

ROVs and the right type of sensors and winches that customers need.”

Dan Hook

Image Courtesy Ocean In? nity

Meet Armada

US-based seabed survey and ocean exploration company Ocean In? nity said it has launched a new marine technology and data company boasting the industry’s larg- est ? eet of unmanned surface vehicles (USV). Armada, with a focus on combining technology and environmental sustainability, will initially add 15 bespoke designed marine robots to Ocean In? nity’s current ? eet of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).

Armada’s ? eet is currently under construction and is expected to be deployable by the end of 2020. Each unmanned surface robot will serve a wide range of industries by being fully equipped to perform a multiplicity of offshore data acquisition and intervention operations down to a depth of 6,000 meters. These robot ships will be capable of remotely deploying a wide range of the latest sensors as well as AUVs and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) for visual and acoustic data ac- quisition. Armada’s ? eet requires neither people on board nor a host vessel nearby.

Instead they will be controlled and operated by experienced mariners via satellite communications from state of the art onshore facilities in both Austin, Texas and

Southampton, England.

The ? eet approach produces up to 90% less CO2 than other conventional survey vessels, Ocean In? nity said. Oliver Plunkett, CEO for Ocean In? nity, said, “We’ve been driven to innovate by a desire to further reduce our impact on the environment and the time people spend at sea. We have built an outstanding team who boast world leading expertise to take this next stage of our business forward for the bene? t of our clients and all those who work with us ”

Dan Hook, Managing Director for Armada, said, “We are very excited to be launch- ing Armada, which perfectly complements the other service offerings in the Ocean

In? nity Group. The pioneering technology makes our operations world-leading in terms of environmental sustainability and safety, while still achieving the very high- est levels of data quality and value for our clients. With no requirement for a host vessel, we are breaking new ground in the area of subsea technology and data.”

Watch the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ksWjIZ47o&feature=emb_logo www.marinelink.com 41

MR #2 (34-49).indd 41 2/5/2021 11:46:21 AM

Maritime Reporter

First published in 1881 Maritime Reporter is the world's largest audited circulation publication serving the global maritime industry.