OceanAlpha Group Ltd. applications

Unmanned surface vehicle solutions for the water monitoring.

Unmanned surface vehicle solutions for the bathymetry survey.

Unmanned surface vehicle solutions for the flow measurement.

Unmanned surface vehicle solutions for the maritime industry.

The OceanAlpha USV is a state of the art performance survey boat with extraordinary performance. It integrates a single beam/multi beam echo sounder, GNSS/RTK, a camera, and an obstacle avoidance system. The wide bandwidth radio station allows the operator to see precise bathymetric data results in real time. These USVs are beneficial not only for mapping shallow, murky waters, but also for improving the efficiency of our hydrographic operations. Since 2010, OceanAlpha has been working with USVs to provide solutions to the challenges surveyors face such as too many on-board components, interconnecting cables, and numerous data communication settings, all of which present a significant risk of downtime through equipment setup issues. The ‘all in one’ OceanAlpha USV solution is a game changer: all components & sensors are tightly integrated and work smoothly with the software. All you need to do is put it in the water and start surveying.

Oceanalpha’s autonomous hydrographic survey boat has been applied to the mining industry for tailings dam pond or tailing storage facility (TSF) surveys, in addition to its common application in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans. All you need to do is set up the survey way-points and the drone boat will go automatically with GPS navigation and acquire online bathymetric data. USV survey technology has been proved to be a great alternative to replace traditional manned surveys, especially the surveys which are repeated periodically or in hazardous water. Generating quality data as well as reducing the running cost and saving human lives makes the boat more and more appealing to mining companies when they make survey decisions.

So, what is the next step for USV technology? Developing larger, longer endurance USVs and taking them beyond shallow waters. OceanAlpha has continued its quest to develop autonomous vessels, integrating them with multibeam sonar, sub-bottom profilers, side scan sonar, CTD, SVP, and LiDAR capabilities for the oceanographic survey community. OceanAlpha’s USVs have been placed with lead users in the markets and have been applied from coastal oceanographic surveying to open sea areas, including the Antarctic region. Improved efficiency and safety will be a driving factor behind the acceptance of USVs for this application. Coastal and inland applications that require extensive surveying in shallow waters makes the USV an ideal choice. As USV-based surveying solutions become more established, more and more traditional oceanographic survey tasks will be completed by USVs.

Robotics and underwater vehicles have been used in the oil and gas industry for decades. Without the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the industry would be far less efficient than it is today. In recent years, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) were introduced to the industry and offered a variety of solutions that aided in lowering costs and improving the efficiency of offshore operations. OceanAlpha has been working with oil and gas customers to provide innovative USV solutions that meet the requirements of the offshore surveying sectors. Our USV, capable of conducting subsea positioning, surveying and environmental monitoring, and can be integrated with a variety of offshore payload combinations including: USBL, ADCP, CTD, Multibeam Sonar, and sub-bottom profilers. OceanAlpha USVs can also be utilized in the patrol missions around drilling platforms.

OceanAlpha makes unmanned surface vessels (USVs) for water quality professionals that sample, monitor, or survey large areas of water surfaces. Traditional methods require at least two technicians in a full-sized boat, going from site to site to collect samples or make measurements. The use of a USV reduces the amount of time, labor and equipment needed to collect water quality data when compared to traditional methods. Agencies have seen more than 6x more improvements in efficiency, while simultaneously reducing risk by keeping technicians and full-sized vessels on shore.