Sofar Ocean pushes Spotter platform into deep waters with new USV

Spotter Scout, a rugged, solar-powered USV that enables persistent ocean sensing in remote and deep-water locations, has been launched by Sofar Ocean, one of the leading ocean intelligence platforms.

Remote ocean monitoring is typically expensive and complex. Traditional mooring systems are hard to deploy, maintain and relocate, and often cost more than the sensors they support. This makes them difficult to justify for shorter-term deployments.

Spotter Scout removes these constraints. The durable uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) holds position in deep water, transits between locations on command, and can return home after six or more months unattended. While deployed, it collects the same surface and subsurface data trusted by thousands of Spotter Platform users worldwide, and sends every observation to the Spotter Dashboard and API in real time.

"Spotter Scout is an exciting step in the evolution of the Spotter Platform, while extending the same scalability philosophy,” said Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar. "Effectively, it delivers a Spotter with position control at your fingertips. This extends our ability to build networks that support new missions and water depths where mooring or drifting is not effective.”

Harshest ocean conditions

Spotter Scout is engineered for long-term performance in the harshest ocean conditions. Its flooded hull has no sealed air volume to breach, keeping it operational in sea states 7 and 8. A keel-mounted 2kWh battery provides the ballast needed to self-right in extreme conditions and, paired with a 340W solar array, ensures continuous operation. Spotter Scout supports cellular, Iridium and Starlink connectivity, enabling reliable communication from nearshore to the open ocean. If a project’s needs change, an operator can reposition it with a simple browser-based command sent via desktop or mobile.

Whereas most USVs are priced for single-asset deployments, Spotter Scout is priced for networks. An operator can manage dozens of units from a single Spotter Dashboard, shifting the question from 'Where should I place my one monitoring system?' to 'How should I design a network to cover this entire area?'. Spotter Scout was built by Online Oceans, a UK-based marine robotics company.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Sofar to combine our respective technologies into a powerful new ocean monitoring capability,” said George Morton, co-founder and CEO of Online Oceans. “By integrating Sofar’s proven sensing and data infrastructure with Online Oceans’ long-endurance autonomous surface platform, Scout, we can enable persistent, scalable access to ocean data in places that have traditionally been difficult or expensive to reach. It’s a great example of how complementary technologies can unlock new ways to observe and understand the ocean.”