PR90544

HONOLULU, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The uncrewed, autonomous, Saildrone Surveyor will arrive in Hawaii today after

a groundbreaking maiden voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1560420/Saildrone_Surveyor.jpg

While ocean crossings are nothing new for Saildrone's autonomous surface

vehicles, the Saildrone Surveyor is a new, much larger class of vehicle

optimized for deep-ocean mapping. During the 28-day voyage, the Saildrone

Surveyor sailed 2,250 nautical miles and mapped 6,400 square nautical miles of

seafloor.

Using renewable wind and solar energy for its primary power source, the

Saildrone Surveyor is the only vehicle in the world capable of long-endurance,

uncrewed ocean mapping operations. The valuable data it collects will help

address issues impacting our world including climate change, offshore renewable

energy, natural resource management, and maritime safety.

Measuring 72 feet long (22 m) and weighing 14 tons, the Saildrone Surveyor

carries a sophisticated array of acoustic instruments, normally carried by

large, manned survey ships. The Surveyor's sensors interrogate the water column

looking at underwater ecosystems and map the seafloor in high resolution to a

depth of 23,000 feet (7,000 m).

Multibeam data from the Saildrone Surveyor has been calibrated and assessed by

an external team from the University of New Hampshire (UNH), which normally

calibrates large government survey vessels. "The data quality from the Surveyor

is of very high quality, as good as anything we have seen from a ship," said

Larry Mayer, director for the UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM).

"Due to the wind-powered nature of the vehicle, it is very quiet, and this

enables the very accurate acoustic measurements needed to map to these depths."

The ocean covers more than 70% of the planet, but over 80% remains unmapped and

unexplored. The lack of ocean exploration is largely due to the high cost of

access to our oceans, which has traditionally been undertaken by large ships.

These ships can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and hundreds of

thousands of dollars per day to operate. The Saildrone Surveyor represents a

paradigm shift in the cost of ocean access, performing the same job as a survey

ship, but at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint.

"This successful maiden voyage marks a revolution in our ability to understand

our planet," said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. "We have solved

the challenge of reliable long-range, large-payload remote maritime operations.

Offshore survey can now be accomplished without a large ship and crew; this

completely changes operational economics for our customers. Based on this

achievement, I am excited to apply Saildrone Surveyor technology to other

markets normally reserved for large ships, such as homeland security and

defense applications. The implications of a low-carbon solution to these

critical maritime missions are significant."

With this successful proof of concept voyage, Saildrone, Inc. of California,

will now build a fleet of Surveyors to be manufactured at US shipyards.

Saildrone intends to map the entire earth's oceans in the next 10 years.

About Saildrone (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3222018-1&h=4085293978&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saildrone.com%2F&a=About+Saildrone)

Saildrone is a US small business that designs, manufactures, and operates a

fleet of the world's most capable, proven, and trusted uncrewed surface

vehicles (USVs). Predominantly powered by wind and solar, Saildrone USVs have a

minimal carbon footprint and are equipped with advanced sensors and ML

technology to deliver critical data and intelligence from any ocean, at any

time of year. Solutions include maritime domain awareness, ocean data, and

ocean mapping. Saildrone operations and data collection services are encrypted

and secure.

Click for images/b-roll (https://saildrone.mediavalet.com/portals/saildrone-surveyor-completes-ocean-crossing-san-francisco-hawaii).

Contact

Susan Ryan

Vice President Marketing

(314) 914-5008

susan.ryan@saildrone.com

SOURCE  Saildrone, Inc.