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26MTRMarch 2012 Could you talk about some of the origins of Bluefin? Kelly: It started in the MIT Lab under Dr. Jim Bellingham who was actually working on autonomy and subsea platforms. He was unsatisfied with the platforms that were available, so they started getting into designing and building low cost AUVs. At the time, many of the platforms were full pressure vessels. So they got into the idea of minimizing the pressure vessel space and using a free-flooded architecture which lowered the cost point and weight of the platforms ? they did that inside of the lab for a good chunk of the 1990s. Then in about 1997 they started to receive ONR contracts and they spun out a company?Bluefin Robotics. Bluefin used those contracts to build up the technology and capability through the early 2000s. Then just before 2005 they got a contract where they had to build multiple vehicles. That must have changed the game a bit? Kelly: Yes, they got to a point with the company where they had to decide whether Bluefin was going to be a design house or a full service AUV company. That led to the sale of Bluefin to Battelle. So now we are a wholly- owned subsidiary of Battelle and a full service AUV com- pany serving all market sectors and all lifecycles. We do internally and externally funded R&D, design, manufac-turing, testing as well as training in marine operations. We think offering the full lifecycle enables us to see the lessons learned because we are working with the vehicles in the real world. We feed back to the design process, to identi- fy the operational challenges and improve capabilities. What are some of homeland secu- rity applications?Kelly: The single largest market forAUVs is defense and the single largest client is the US Navy. On the defense side, AUVs are primari- ly used for mine countermeasures, but also rapid environmental assessment which provides infor- mation about the ocean environ- ment they are operating in. They are also used for intelligence, sur- veillance and reconnaissance and somewhat for anti-submarine war- fare. In the commercial sector, we carve the market into the oil and gas industry which is mostly subsea Subsea Vehicle Technology Subsea Vehicle Technology From the Drawing Board David P. Kelly President & CEO, Bluefin RoboticsMTR#2 (18-33):MTR Layouts 2/21/2012 10:49 AM Page 26