Page 19: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2020)

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Ocean Voyages Institute

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Ocean Voyages Institute’s marine

VRXQGE\GHVLJQ plastic recovery vessel, S/V KWAI, docked at the end of June after a 48- day expedition removing 103 tons of ? shing nets and consumer plastics from the North Paci? c Subtropical 0XOWLEHDP,PDJLQJ6RQDUV 6LQJOHDQG'XDO)UHTXHQF\WRN+]

Convergence Zone (more commonly known as the Great Paci? c Garbage

Patch or Gyre). The expedition sets a record of the largest at sea clean-up in the Gyre to date, and more than doubles Ocean Voyages Institute’s own results from last year. During the expedition, the KWAI’s crew collected marine plastic pollution with the help well as lookouts up the mast, enable the of GPS satellite trackers that Ocean ship’s crew to home in on the debris.

Voyages Institute designed with engi- They then recover the litter, place it in neer Andy Sybrandy of Paci? c Gyre, industrial bags, and store it in the ship’s

Inc. The beacons are placed on nets by cargo hold for proper recycling and re- volunteer yachts and ships. Drones, as purposing at the end of the voyage.

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BAE Systems/Riptide

By 2019 the success of this product erBot. This vehicle takes a different was noted by BAE Systems. The BAE approach to delivering an affordable 3RUWDEOH6LGHVFDQ6RQDUV

Systems FAST Labs organization ac- solution for end users. The Rang- 7RZHG2(0+XOODQG3ROH0RXQWHG quired Riptide and is now maturing erBot was designed by engineers at the platform technology and scal- Queensland University of Technol- ing manufacturing. FAST Labs is the ogy (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. The

R&D arm of BAE Systems, Inc. and team at QUT work in a robotics center is unique in the defense industry as an focused on machine vision. in-house, customer-funded R&D busi- They also work to support environ- ness designed to collaborate across the mental assessments on the Great Bar- company’s global enterprise to develop rier Reef. A key paradigm shift was and transition advanced technologies. enabled when the team, recognizing

The micro AUV originally launched that water conditions in their target by Riptide is bene? tting from this environment were very clear, chose to process. Another small AUV that has employ exclusively vision-based sens- recently come on scene is the Rang- ing.

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