The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/99539
oceanbusiness iRobot Shuts Down Marine Products Business iRobot Corp. (Bedford, Massachusetts) has closed its Raleigh-Durham offce in North Carolina, where its maritime business operated with product and research components. The company has moved its research activities to Bedford. Efforts to develop Seaglider as a product will be halted, The News & Observer reported. "While we think there is a future for unmanned underwater vehicles, the product market hasn't materialized as quickly as we expected," iRobot Chairman and CEO Colin Angle said during an October conference call. In its quarterly report, iRobot cited ongoing funding delays for government contractors as a contributing factor to the division's decreasing revenue. cesses the data. The pressure data are sent from the seabedlocated sensor to the processing electronics in the subsurface buoy using a hardwired link. If a tsunami is detected, a hydrodynamic-shaped pop-up buoy with an Iridium transmitter is released to the surface, where it sends data via satellite to warning centers. OPT Establishes New Business Unit for PowerBuoys Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (OPT), based in Pennington, New Jersey, formed in November its Autonomous PowerBuoy business unit to target and develop opportunities for OPT's nongrid-connected PowerBuoys. OPT's products for the autonomous market have been developed for off-grid applications, such as defense, offshore oil and gas operations, and oceanographic data gathering. The company appointed Phil Hart to the new position of senior vice president of autonomous power. AIS Payload on exactEarth Satellite Passes Testing ARROW Tsunami Detection System Launched Mooring Systems Inc. (Cataumet, Massachusetts) and Down East Instrumentation LLC (Cary, North Carolina) have released their jointly developed tsunami detection system, which can be deployed for up to two years. The ARROW (Autonomous Real-time Reporting of Waves) system differs from conventional systems, as it is submerged 100 meters below the ocean surface, eliminating its exposure to surface harsh conditions. To determine if a tsunami wave passes above the sensor, ARROW hydrostatically measures the height of the water column using a high-resolution pressure sensor and pro- exactEarth Ltd. (Cambridge, Canada) has successfully completed the payload performance testing of its latest AIS satellite, exactView-1 (EV-1). exactEarth planned to have the EV-1 in full commercial operation by November. The polar-orbiting EV-1 was built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (Guildford, England) and is the ffth deployed satellite in the exactView vessel-monitoring satellite constellation. EV-1 utilizes S-band and C-band communications. Markey Winches Chosen for Canadian Ice-Class Tugs Markey Machinery (Seattle, Washington) will provide a complete suite of deck machinery for harbor-class TunDRA www.sea-technology.com DECEMBER 2012 / st 63