Hydroacoustic technology specialist Subsea Europe Services said Wednesday it had secured six-figure funding to accelerate autonomous survey development.
"The investment boosts the company’s unique approach which focuses on the integration of new generation smart, A.I. and machine learning-enabled hydroacoustic systems with diverse survey platforms including Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Unmanned Surface Vessels, and crewed vessels as survey motherships," the company said.
Subsea Europe Services said it was working with several autonomy-focused partners globally and that the first fruits of the collaborations would be shown as early as April 2022, during demonstrations of a new solution created with MARTAC Inc., and based on the high-performance Mantas T12 Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) with a tightly integrated hydrographic survey payload.
"The solution is expected to be ready for operation in May, with short, on-demand surveys at offshore wind farms projected to drive demand for the combination of a high-speed USV and increased autonomous payload functionality," the company said.
“The autonomous and unmanned platforms available today are incredibly advanced, but survey technology payloads are still complex systems that require an experienced and professional operator to utilize properly,” said Sören Themann, CEO, Subsea Europe Services.
“This investment is a platform for our on-going autonomy R&D, which aims to unlock more agility and efficiency through the seamless integration of survey system and platform to create a single, holistic solution that ultimately, will collect more data, of higher quality and at a faster rate than traditional survey operations,” adds Luis Carlo Soto, Survey Manager, Subsea Europe Services.
The company said it had received support from an angel investor, but it did not share details on the exact amount secured.