Blueye Robotics has been awarded a contract to supply the Norwegian Coast Guard with underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems.
Blueye has equipped the entire fleet of vessels operated by the Norwegian Coast Guard with its X3 model. The ROVs will provide the diving team with more eyes below the surface in addition to carrying sensors for improved navigation and data collection.
Under the contract, the Blueye X3 ROV will be used by the mother ship and from man overboard boats (MOBs) for several use cases, including:
- Securing evidence of an environmental crime
- Search for drugs or other objects on ship hulls
- Search for missing people
- Inspection of own vessels prior to leaving harbor (searching for unwanted objects)
- Control of historical monuments at sea
- Inspections of ships after suspected grounding
- Substitute for simple dive operations
The Norwegian Coast Guard was said to have chose the Blueye Robotics solution because of its superior ease of use, sensor modularity capabilities, robustness in extreme environments, ability to operate from 2ft of water to open ocean, portability (9kg weight), and battery capacity (4 hours of operational time).
The possibility to easily create dive reports directly in the Blueye App was also reported as a winning feature. In addition to delivering the hardware, Blueye has provided on-site training and access to an online help center library of articles and videos.
“Blueye Robotics has developed portable, robust, and user-friendly technology since 2015. We are incredibly proud to be the chosen partner for the Norwegian Coast Guard. This demonstrates a demand for smaller-sized user-friendly ROVs and fuels the Blueye Robotics team to keep developing high-quality products and solutions for our growing base of customers,” said Christian Gabrielsen, CEO of Blueye Robotics.
Blueye Robotics X3s, with sensors and payloads such as DVL for underwater positioning, a dual-frequency multi-beam sonar for navigation and extended line-of-sight, and a gripper was delivered to the Norwegian Coast Guard in February 2023.
