Underwater drone project is complete

The H2020 BRIDGES project, which stands for Bringing together Research and Industry for the Development of Glider Environmental Services, started in April 2015 and finished in August.

Engineers and technicians worked together to design, manufacture and operate two Alseamar underwater unmanned vehicles (the DeepExplorer, 2400m depth-rated and UltraDeepExplorer, 5000m depth-rated).

Involving 19 partners from 8 different countries, the project aimed to fulfil the brief to “perform research on cost-effective, robust and autonomous platform ready to support long-term in-situ exploration and protection services of the coastal and deep ocean”.

Next stage

Alseamar will now carry on the project, entering an industrialisation phase, in order to bring the gliders to market with capabilities beyond current glider technology.

The company aims to target growth in marine sciences & environment; oil and gas; and defense & security.

The vision for the marine sciences & environment segment is that deep gliders will open new opportunities for cost effective research in the deep sea.

Alseamar said there are a very limited number of platforms that can provide the required services for activities in deep waters in a cost-effective manner, thus the potential for gliders in offshore oil & gas is large and expected to growth.

On the subject of defense & security, Alseamar said the European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP) is a great opportunity to reinforce it as a European leader on this market.

By Rebecca Jeffrey