Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2010)

news 10 MTR September 2010

SeaBotix, in cooperation with Tritech

International and Marine Simulation, has developed the a specially designed, rapid response underwater rescue system. Until now remote operated technology has been used to recover drowning victims, not rescue.

Improved medical studies have shown that a person experiencing near drowning in water up to 21ºC has the potential for rescue. If the victim can be rescued from the water within approximately 90 minutes there is a good chance that the residual oxygen in their body will keep them alive without perma- nent damage to their vital organs.

The problem has been locating and rescu- ing the victim in difficult conditions without furthering human risk. SeaBotix Inc. was approached by Derbyshire Fire & Rescue in the U.K. to develop a solution to the more than 700 drownings per year. The UK Fire & Rescue has the ability to be on location in response to an emergency in under 10 min- utes, however, they are unable to work below the water.

SeaBotix worked with the Derbyshire Fire & Rescue to develop a new ROV rescue sys- tem that would operate in near zero visibili- ty, in poor weather and strong currents, while being simple enough to operate by res- cue personnel. The result is a modified LBV system with high definition Tritech Gemini 720i imaging sonar, limb grasping manipula- tor, video enhancement and a small diame- ter, low drag tether with a 100kg working load. In addition, the advanced SARbotM rescue system includes a new high resolution

StarFish 990F side scan sonar from Tritech

International and a purpose built LBV train- ing simulator by Marine Simulation.

The total package offers rescue teams with large-area search capability and built-in training in a rapid-response rescue ROV.

SARbot For Rapid Subsea Rescue Operations

WHOI Breaks Ground

Equipped with an $8.1m federal

Recovery Act grant and a shovel, the

Woods Hole

Oceanographic

Institution (WHOI) cele- brated the ground- breaking of its new

Laboratory for Ocean

Sensors and Observing

Systems (LOSOS) on,

August 4, at the Clark

Laboratory on the

Institution's Quissett

Campus. "The Laboratory for

Ocean Sensors and

Observing Systems will provide essential space for several ongoing large projects, enabling new approaches to ocean observations well into the 21st century," said

Dr. Susan Avery, presi- dent and director of

WHOI. The funding comes from NIST.

MREC Comes to

Boston The 2nd

Annual New England

Marine Renewable

Energy Center

Technical Conference is scheduled to take place on Tuesday Nov. 2, 2010 at the

Microsoft NERD Ctr., located at 1 Memorial

Dr. in Cambridge. The 3rd Annual MREC

Stakeholder

Conference has joined with the 6th

Conference on Clean

Energy, which takes place at the Hynes

Convention center in

Boston on November 3-4, 2010. www.mrec.umassd.edu