Oceanology International 2024 was held from 12-14th March, with companies from across the globe coming to display a broad range of innovative ocean-applicable sensors and technologies.
OST’s Abi Wylie looks back at the event, outlining the wide variety of new and interesting products that were present, coming across everything from recent releases to displays of some of the most trusted and reliable technology in the industry.
Silicon Sensing were proudly showcasing their range of miniature and MEMS IMUs, from the ultra-precise to the industrial-grade.
In particular, they were most excited to share the DMU41, a MEMS IMU that provides ultra-precise motion sensing performance, while reportedly being set apart with its far lighter, smaller, more reliable, and cheaper build than similar FOG-based units on the market.
The tactical-grade DMU41 also has impressively little deviation per hour, making it especially useful for stabilization and navigation in uncrewed, optionally-manned, or autonomous vessels, on the surface or underwater. Silicon Sensing have more recently applied their sensors to in-space manufacturing advancements.
Valeport, having been acquired by Teledyne Marine at Oceanology International 2024, were very enthusiastically displaying their bathymetric measurement units and CTD sensors, among a range of other oceanographic and hydrographic sensors and solutions.
The company’s Bathy2 was front and center in their bathymetric measurement display, designed to be attached to ROVs and AUVs, and boasting an impressive depth rating of up to 6000m. The company was especially vocal about the Bathy2’s ability to provide density-corrected depth data, directly from just this one instrument.
Perhaps most exciting from the Valeport stand, however, was the Swift CTD. This rechargeable conductivity, temperature, and depth sensor can power down to vastly extend its battery life, and features a GNSS module to provide geolocation information of each profile. The Swift CTD surfaces once the data has been collected, and transmits it via Bluetooth without needing to be collected in person.
Some truly fascinating technology drew was at the ELWAVE stand, with Pierre Tuffigo kindly speaking to me at length about the company’s impressive new active electrolocation “Esense” technology.
This innovative piece of biotechnology uses “fish vision” for seabed mapping. Most magnetic vision only detects metal or magnetic objects, whereas this Esense technology can tell you if an object is metal or not, its size, if it’s living, what shape it is — all possible in low visibility water. It enables the detection of any object with a differing conductivity than the water around it.
This technology is the result of more than 10 years of research and can be applied to any size of ROV or AUV for seabed mapping or obstacle avoidance.
Developing some of the most crucial technology in the surface and subsea sectors, Fizoptika Malta were at Oceanology International 2024 with their high-accuracy fiber optic gyroscopes.
The company manufactures single-axis gyroscopes for a range of marine stabilization and navigation applications, but spoke most about their 3-axis FOG-based IMU. This vital, tiny piece of technology has incredibly low SWaP, reportedly holding the position of smallest fibre-optic gyroscope on the market at the time Oi24.
Showcasing customizable, rechargeable batteries for AUVs and surface vessels — as well as much larger power supplies — SubCtech were focusing on their sea-floor charging capabilities.
The company produces an innovative subsea energy storage system, the Battery Storage Skid (BSS), which at the time of its release was reportedly the largest and only Li-Ion battery for underwater applications. The power supplies provide 1 MWh for offshore oil and gas production, and are anchored to the seabed with ships and ROVs as support vessels.
SubCtech also spoke about some very exciting new prospects and applications for this innovative technology, so watch this space!
Just as their concise and to-the-point tagline states, Keller measures pressure. The enthusiastic team members at the Keller booth were more than happy to tell me all about pressure transducers and transmitters, and how they are set apart as the largest silicon-chip pressure measuring company in Europe — due to many others using different technology altogether.
The company was displaying a wide range of technology for an even wider range of applications, pointing out in particular their piezoresistive pressure measurers for any liquid or gas.
These can be used in a variety of deep sea applications, not least in long-term seabed monitoring to provide increased understanding of tsunamis and earthquakes for eventual prediction or early warning. These underwater pressure sensors can be used for a host of other applications, including evaluating the effects of climate change and the life cycles of deep-sea ecosystems, but it was also fun to discover that some of Keller’s same pieces of technology are currently in use on the International Space Station.
RS Aqua rolled out a selection of their broad range of subsea and surface technology at Oceanology International 2024, in particular showcasing ARC — the Acoustic Release Rope Canister.
While not brand new, it sets itself apart in deep-sea acoustic monitoring technology due to its retrievability, leaving absolutely no waste or permanent materials on the seafloor.
Once it is finished collecting data, ARC autonomously floats to the surface to deposit its data, or be collected for deployment elsewhere. Other sensors, like CTDs and PAM acoustic recorders, can also be mounted on it for easy release and retrieval.
At the Robosys stand, which focused on the company’s surface maritime autonomy solutions, the team spoke to me about their collision avoidance technology and use of artificial intelligence.
These innovative developments involve the company’s autonomous navigation software taking into account the nautical “rules of the road”, rather than simply using detect and avoid technology. Robosys’ full-stack autonomy solutions can be deployed on purpose-built USVs or retrofit onto existing surface vessels, with remote control, full autonomous, and optionally unmanned capabilities.
