The Naval Oceanogaphic Office, the wing of the Defense Department responsible for charting the ocean bottom, has signed a five-year support contract with Hydroid, the Pocasset, MA-based maker of robot submarines. Okay, they’re actually called AUVs, or autonomous underwater vehicles—not to be confused with UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles (though we wrote about those earlier this week.)
The office, based at Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, owns four AUVs supplied by Hydroid: one Remus 100 sub and three Remus 6000 vehicles. (Remus, of course, is another acronym, standing for Remote Environmental Measuring Units.) The Remus 6000 can dive to a depth of 20,000 feet, carrying sensors such as side-scan sonar, video cameras, and acoustic imagers. The vehicles are used in hydrographic surveys, harbor security, debris field mapping, and scientific sampling and mapping.
Under the contract, Hydroid will supply the office with spare parts, service, and support for the Remus vehicles. The amount of the contract was not revealed.
“We are excited to see our technology making an impact on naval oceanography and underwater exploration and look forward to continuing our partnership with NAVO,” Christopher von Alt, Hydroid’s president and co-founder, said in the company’s announcement of the contract.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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