SEA-KIT USV Successfully Completes 22 Days of Offshore Operations in the Atlantic Ocean

19.08.2020
SEA-KIT’s 12m Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) ‘Maxlimer’ returned to Plymouth on Friday after 22 days of remote survey operations on Europe’s continental margin.



Since late July the USV has mapped over 1000sq km of ocean floor, controlled around-the-clock by SEA-KIT via satellite communications from its Remote Operation Centre in Essex.

Notably, the uncrewed vessel returned to Plymouth with its fuel tank still around a third full. The successful completion of this project is a major achievement for the British SME, clearly demonstrating the capabilities of their remotely-controlled USV design in terms of over-the-horizon operation, endurance and ocean-going ability.

This proof of concept is exciting and confirms Fugro made the right choice to partner with SEA-KIT to develop a range of USVs that will transform the marine industry.” - said Ivar de Josselin de Jong, Director Remote Inspection at Fugro. “We are on track with our strategy of leading the development of remote and autonomous solutions.

Peter Walker, Director of Technology at SEA-KIT, expressed delight at welcoming Maxlimer back to Plymouth:It has been a tense but exciting few weeks. The project’s overall aim was to demonstrate the capabilities of current technologies to survey unexplored or inadequately surveyed ocean frontiers and we have absolutely done that. It is a ground-breaking achievement to prove true over-the-horizon capability and the team are elated to have successfully pushed the boundaries of our USV design once again.

Named UTAS (Uncrewed Trans-Atlantic Survey) and co-funded by the UK Space Agency through the European Space Agency’s Business Application programme, the project was originally planned to be trans-ocean. However, due to travel restrictions and other planning complications resulting from COVID-19, this was ultimately not possible.

SEA-KIT worked collaboratively with a number of industry partners on the UTAS project. Fugro, Global Marine Group, Map the Gaps, Teledyne CARIS, Woods Hole Group and The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project all played a part in its successful completion.

The data gathered on this Atlantic voyage will be a valuable addition to the global seabed.” - said Jamie McMichael-Phillips, Director of Seabed 2030. “More importantly, this is another milestone on the journey towards the development of the kind of scalable, environmentally-friendly technology that we are going to need in order to reach our goal of mapping the whole of the world's ocean floors by the end of the decade.

Location: UK









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