SEAMless

Our Subsea bio-inspired sensor development is conducted as part of a larger collaborative project on next generation Subsea Enhanced Autonomous Mapping (SEAMless). Conducted under a UKRI grant in the Robots for a Safer World competition, project stakeholders include The Net Zero Technology Centre, UK Defence Solutions Centre (UK DSC) and the Royal Navy.

SEAMless aims to create the subaquatic equivalent of Google Maps, that will provide more accurate positioning data than GPS, helping improve offshore sustainability.

 
 

Our work builds on recent advances in understanding of how seals use their whiskers to sense the wake from fish and objects in their environment. A minimum viable product demonstrator will assess the potential for Subsea applications for wake based collision avoidance and object identification and tracking. The sensor forms part of a suite of cutting-edge sensors to be trialled with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) autonomous vehicles. SEAMless is Led by subsea mapping specialist ROVCO and includes NOC, Sonardyne, D-RisQ and the Digital Catapult.

Pinnipeds like seals and sea lions use their whiskers to hunt prey in dark and turbid waters. Recent studies offer both theoretical and experimental insight into the mechanisms behind the detection of the Strouhal frequency from a Von-Karman vortex street, the repeating pattern of swirling vortices created by movement in water.

  • Benefits

  • Navigating safely near underwater terrain or objects (E.G. when sediment obscures cameras)

  • Passive & low energy alternative to sonar for vehicle efficiency

  • Detection of objects not in the current field of view of other sensors from residual wakes

  • Reduces maritime pollution when battery-powered vehicles are lost at sea

  • Applications Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

  • Improved collision avoidance in uncertain or complex subsea environments : Reduced occurrence of damage and loss of vehicles

  • More efficient inspections : Increased safe operational speeds and reduced distances around terrain & structures

  • Increased survey mission endurance from a low energy sensor alternative

  • Defence & Security applications : Mine, Diver and UUV detection, identification and tracking

  • Applications Static sensors

  • Vibration detection on subsea structures

  • Harbour surveillance and protection of military maritime graves : Diver and UUV detection

“Genuinely revolutionary technology begins with research” - Sir James Dyson