Havfram Subsea, the global marine construction contractor, is reclaiming the Ocean Installer brand. Havfram's subsea business was known as Ocean Installer from the company's inception in 2011, with the 2020 name change reflecting its diversification into the offshore wind industry. The relaunch follows last year's announcement of the sale of Havfram's wind business lines.

US oceanographic research centre Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has chosen deepwater positioning technology from Sonardyne for its new, state-of-the-art scientific flagship the R/V David Packard. The 50 m-long research vessel, named in honour of MBARI’s founder, David Packard, is being built to undertake a diverse range of missions in Monterey Bay and beyond, supporting the institute’s mission to advance marine science and technology to understand a changing ocean.

Installation of subsea structures is a complex operation, therefore accurate monitoring throughout the campaign is essential for a successful result. For this, RTS presents the Cube SDM system.

Oceaneering International announced today that it has formed a collaboration agreement with InnetiQs GmbH (IQ) to explore and develop advanced inspection solutions for the offshore and onshore energy markets.

Oceaneering announced today that its Freedom™ AUV, following an extensive testing and qualification program, has achieved Technology Readiness Level 6 on a 1-9 scale, as assessed by an expert industry group with representation from TotalEnergies, Chevron, and Equinor.

Teledyne RD Instruments (TRDI) has announced a restructure of their distribution network in China to improve service for local customers. TRDI has expanded their existing relationship with Xiamen Lawlink Development Co., Ltd., located in Xiamen, China. Xiamen Lawlink will now distribute TRDI’s full line of ADCPs for water resources applications. To maximize their reach, they will continue to work with five existing regional representatives: Guangzhou Hestoon Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Yellow River Hydro Science Co., Ltd., Jiangsu NAIWCH Co., Ltd., Nanjing Hengshui Technology Co., Ltd., and Wuhan Long Ya Technologies Co., Ltd.

A new collaboration between Schmidt Ocean Institute and the National Geographic Society to advance diversity and equity among ocean scientists was announced today at the UN Ocean Conference. The partnership will provide seagoing opportunities to underrepresented, historically marginalized and local scientists and National Geographic Explorers.

Saipem has been awarded a contract by Shell and Petrobras for the utilisation of its FlatFish subsea drone in two pilot projects encompassing the inspection campaigns of two ultra-deepwater fields offshore Brazil, operated respectively by the two energy companies. These two projects with Shell and Petrobras are pilots and fall within the framework of the research and development programme of ANP, the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels. The target is to qualify the drone to execute unmanned, vessel-free inspections to support the monitoring and maintenance campaigns of the subsea infrastructures.

RTS Introduces NEMO. NEMO is a highly accurate Inertial Navigation System with Integrated Doppler, delivered in a compact design, ready to use in your underwater vehicle. Today, hydroacoustic position reference systems are very common. But these systems are reliant on good weather conditions to provide stable position data and can therefore have a lack of control in rough weather.

To carry out unmanned inspection missions on offshore wind farms and more generally for all offshore infrastructures, Subsea Tech has developed the SeaCAT. SeaCAT is a multi-drone solution combining a surface drone (USV - Unmanned Surface Vehicle), an underwater robot (ROV - Remotely Operated Vehicle) and an aerial drone (UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) for the inspection of structures from the foundations to the tip of the blades.

The University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (UNH CCOM), as a member of the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI), funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration, has taken delivery of an iXblue DriX Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV) and its Universal Deployment System. The autonomous solution will help expand the footprint and efficiency of the OECI’s ocean exploration operations.

Founder and CEO Richard Jenkins has been selected as the winner of the 2022 Albert A. Michelson Award by the Navy League of the United States. Jenkins and the Saildrone team have made waves in the defense community in recent months, demonstrating that turnkey maritime domain awareness (MDA) solutions are a force multiplier, enabling rapid and effective response from high-value manned assets.

RE2 Robotics, a leading developer of intelligent mobile manipulation systems, today announced that its Maritime Mine Neutralization System (M2NS) reached an unprecedented depth milestone of more than 1 kilometer during a recent open-water demonstration for the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), the project’s sponsor.

The World Ocean Observatory (W2O) and Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) announced today the launch of World Ocean Explorer DEEP SEA exhibit, creating a first-of-its kind immersive virtual aquarium showcasing deep-sea discoveries. THE DEEP SEA is an educational, interactive online platform for ocean exploration and discovery, utilizing high-resolution video, models, and descriptive materials of newly discovered deep-sea ocean species and environments observed during science expeditions aboard research vessel Falkor with the underwater robot (ROV) SuBastian.

Empire Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Equinor and bp, has awarded a contract to Maersk Supply Service for charter of its newbuild wind installation vessel (WIV). This vessel, together with US constructed barges and tugs built and operated by Kirby Offshore Wind, will be used for the installation of the project’s Vestas V236-15MW turbines.

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners will offer up to $3.5 million in funding annually to entrepreneurs and others developing new technologies that increase the sustainability of fisheries around the world. The effort is also being funded by two anonymous philanthropic groups.

Founders Eric and Wendy Schmidt donate research vessel Falkor to Italy’s science agency to conduct ocean science in the Mediterranean and beyond. Schmidt Ocean Institute announced today the donation of its 82.9-meter research vessel, Falkor, to the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), expanding the science agency’s fleet of research vessels and continuing Falkor’s legacy of conducting ocean science. The ship will be renamed to Gaia Blu.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has pioneered a new obstacle avoidance pipeline for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) using the Impact Subsea ISS360 Imaging Sonar. The pipeline is intended to provide a reduced form factor, lower power requirement and a more cost effective solution than traditional approaches. The team successfully utilised the ISS360 Imaging Sonar integrated with a REMUS 100 AUV and demonstrated automatic obstacle avoidance capability with the new pipeline.