While the demand for reliable data grows across all water depths and sectors, the focus on protecting critical national infrastructure is driving the need to safeguard data integrity, according to Sonardyne. The company’s solutions support subsea navigation, positioning and underwater communications to strengthen operational capability.
Which main development are you highlighting at Oi26, and which customer problem does it solve?
Our latest development is Observer, our advanced technology for intelligent subsea asset monitoring. Highly versatile and configurable, Observer is designed to address a wide range of asset integrity challenges, from pipeline expansion and contraction to vortex-induced vibration. It’s straightforward to install, with up to ten-year monitoring and in-situ analysis capability. Thanks to in-built wireless communications, it also delivers insights on-demand. This supercharges proactive subsea asset integrity management, extends asset life and reduces operational risk and operating expenditure (OpEx). We have also recently introduced a new 1,000m depth-rated version of SPRINT-Nav U, further extending the capabilities of underwater robotic platforms across a range of markets.
Which applications are currently driving the most demand for your products or services, and how has that changed compared to last year?
There is increasing focus on protecting critical national infrastructure such as telecommunications and power cables. This drives the need for solutions that safeguard data integrity, putting subsea navigation, positioning and underwater communications at the centre of operational capability. In practice, this means integrating proven navigation solutions such as SPRINT-Nav onto survey vehicles, enabling rapid, increasingly low-logistics mobilization – often for unexploded ordnance (UXO) and suchlike. Observer delivers actionable intelligence that enables efficient, proactive integrity management of assets that are otherwise difficult to monitor and inspect.
What is behind that shift in applications?
The demand for reliable ocean data is growing across all water depths and sectors. From ocean science to defence or energy security, organizations need solutions that deliver insights efficiently. That means lower costs and more rapid deployments with low-logistics platforms. Those that enable data to be gathered sustainably and with minimal operational overhead are increasingly in demand.
How do you see the hydrographic sector evolving over the next two to three years, and where do you expect the biggest capability gaps to be?
The growing amount of data that is gathered needs to be managed and useful to support timely and informed decision-making. This trend, and an increasing use of autonomy, is likely to drive a shift in where the intelligence is located. More will be found on the platforms people are using to gather data, so that the intelligence becomes an insight that can be acted on faster – including by the platform itself.
What can Oi26 visitors expect to find at your booth, and why should they stop by?
Visitors should first take a walk around the show to see our technologies being put to use! In the Dockside Demonstration area, BeeX is demonstrating its hovering autonomous underwater vehicle (HAUV) A.IKANBILIS, with our SPRINT-Nav U onboard. Also dockside is Marine AI, who – in partnership with ZeroUSV – will be remotely operating a 12m uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) in Plymouth, UK, to showcase GNSS-denied navigation using our SPRINT-Nav Mini. Attendees should then come and visit our stand (F300) for a barista-brewed coffee and to chat about Observer and how we can make underwater work for them.