Open Ocean Robotics (OOR), Victoria, British Columbia, recently received the Autonomous System Award at BlueTIDE 2024, a maritime technology event held in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 29. The event was organized by 401 Tech Bridge, NavalX's Northeast Tech Bridge, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), and featured over 30 finalists presenting innovations focused on security applications.
OOR participated in the Autonomous & Uncrewed Systems category, showcasing its DataXplorer™ uncrewed surface vehicle (USV). According to a press release issued by the company, DataXplorer™ presents a range of sensors designed to enhance maritime domain awareness (MDA). These included 360-degree visual and thermal cameras, a towed hydrophone, environmental sensors, and AI-powered edge computing systems. The company's Enhanced Horizon™ and Underwater Listener™ systems were noted to improve detection ranges compared to typical crew operations.
During the event, OOR collaborated with other finalists to explore potential integrations of their technologies. The company worked with Sunfish, MAK, DSA Ocean, and BLUEiQ, as well as Verizon and IBM for data sharing and optimization. OOR’s engineering team partnered with DSA Ocean to develop computational fluid dynamic models of DataXplorer to evaluate performance in varying weather conditions. MAK integrated a 3D model of DataXplorer into its environmental simulation platform, and BLUEiQ provided acoustic data for comparison with the DataXplorer’s hydrophone data.
Fritz Stahr, chief technology officer of Open Ocean Robotics, expressed the company’s satisfaction with their involvement in BlueTIDE. “It was a privilege to work alongside these leading innovators and be part of BlueTIDE. We were thrilled to showcase how our real-time processing and data transmission capabilities allow us to rapidly detect and localize objects of interest, sharing both spectrograms and acoustic clips in real time.”
During the event, the DataXplorer USV autonomously navigated to the operation area to search for unknown underwater objects, the company noted in a press release. Evaluators observed the operation from a chase boat, while attendees watched the live-stream data feed on XplorerView. Open Ocean Robotics successfully detected anomalous objects in the operation site using its sensor suite, demonstrating the capabilities of this platform for MDA.
Since 2019, Open Ocean Robotics noted it has been conducting autonomous data collection missions for maritime security and environmental monitoring with its USVs. The available fleet of 11 DataXplorer’s has logged over 8,000 hours across three oceans, enduring hurricane-force winds and operating continuously for up to a month. In addition to using this fleet for mission as a service, OOR is now making DataXplorer USVs available for end-user preorders, with the first customer deliveries coming in late 2024.
