| Press Releases - March 2005
March 29, 2005 - Winners of MATE ROV competition
featured in the Washington Post and Wired Magazine
March 29, 2005 - Professors get ready to
do global warming research in Antarctica with ROV
March 16, 2005 - Coda Octopus to Feature
on Platinum TV's 'Business & Beyond'
March 2, 2005 - Coast Guard's anti-terror
unit at the ready with an ROV
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Date: March 29, 2005
Organization: Carl Hayden Community High School
Winners of MATE ROV competition featured in the Washington Post and Wired
Magazine
Click here to read the Washington Post column
Click here to see the team's feature in this month's Wired Magazine, including photos. Interested in information about La Vida Robot Scholarship Fund to benefit the education of Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, and Oscar Vazquez? Learn more here...
Date: March 29, 2005
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Professors get ready to do global warming research in Antarctica with ROV
By Gerold Shelton (Northern Star Online) - Northern Illinois University professors will study global warming in Antarctica next winter after receiving a $2-million grant. The university will purchase a sub-ice remote ocean vehicle, which is unmanned and shaped like a mini-submarine. It will be 6 feet long and 18 inches in diameter and painted yellow. The ROV will include five cameras and 16 other instruments used to test the temperature and salinity of water. It will also gather seafloor and water samples.
"It is similar to what was used to explore inside the Titanic," said Ross Powell, a geology and environmental geosciences professor. "We hope to have a live video feed from ROV so classes can be involved with this as well."
Deep Ocean Engineering and Research Marine is building the ROV for $700,000. Money for the project was given to the university through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "No university or state money is being used to fund this," said Johnathan Berg, department of geology and environmental geosciences chair. "For all of the equipment, the drill, the ROV and the instruments, it will cost about $2 million."
To get the grant, Powell wrote a proposal explaining the need for the equipment. From there, the proposal was put up for review in front of other scientists, and the money was given to NIU late last year. Powell said the funding process began last year around this time. The Board of Trustees approved allocation of the funding at its meeting Thursday.
Powell, along with NIU professors Reed Scherer, Melissa Lenczewski and Stefan Vogel, a postdoctoral, will make the trip. They conduct research in Antarctica on a large chunk of ice that has broken off the main section of ice. The research will study global warming effects and how fast the underlying ocean water dissolves the chunk of ice. "We think it's [very] important," Powell said. "The ice we will be on is the size of Texas."
Because of logistical problems in getting the equipment in time to be shipped to Antarctica, Powell said he was not sure exactly when they will start working on the project itself. Before the research can begin, a hot water drill will be used to cut through nearly two miles of ice. From there, the ROV will be lowered down into the hole and will expand once it reaches the bottom. "Drilling the ice takes about 24 hours," Powell said. "But we will be out there living in huts for about two months." It will take three trips to complete the research.
After each trip, the equipment will be taken apart, examined and possibly repaired, Powell said. Extreme temperatures force the researchers to conduct the research during Antarctica's summer, which is in December and January.
While three representatives from NIU will be working on the project, professors from Penn State, New York University and the University of California will also be there. "We were going to have international collaboration from some New Zealanders if we went this year, but now we don't know," Powell said.
An unmanned $700,000 sub-ice remote ocean vehicle will be built by Deep Ocean Engineering and Research Marine. A grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was awarded to Ross Powell, a geology and environmental geosciences professor at NIU, to study the effects of global warming.
Date: March 16, 2005
Organization: Coda Octopus Group, Inc.
Coda Octopus to Feature on Platinum TV's 'Business & Beyond'
North Salem, N.Y. (Primezone) - Coda Octopus Group, Inc. has revealed that it has been selected by the Platinum Television Group to appear in its acclaimed educational television series, "Business & Beyond". The company will be featured in a segment on "Marine Technology: Effective Solutions." Coda Octopus is internationally recognized as a specialist in underwater technologies for imaging, mapping, defense and surveys. As a leading supplier of geosurvey solutions for more than 10 years, the company will explain how it has provided systems for vessels ranging from rigid inflatable boats up to the world's largest survey ships. Practical applications are diverse and have included offshore hydrographic surveys; seafloor mapping; undersea projects for oil and gas; harbor and waterway inspection and surveillance; maritime defense; anti-terrorism; salvage and recovery; construction; ship hull inspection.
The two respected brands, Coda and Octopus, offer solutions for all application requirements and each has its own operational emphasis. Coda products provide feature-rich acquisition solutions and productivity tools for the most exacting survey requirements. Delivering high resolution results, Coda GeoSurvey is the choice of the world's leading survey companies when quality and precision is paramount. The Octopus range offers easy to use, self-contained workhorse instruments for mainstream survey work and, incorporating all the key geophysical functions, they combine simplicity of operation with solid, reliable performance in one-box solutions. Popular Octopus systems include the F180 Attitude and Positioning System and the new 760 series of geophysical acquisition instruments.
"Business & Beyond" will cover a range of Coda Octopus products, including the new and exciting Echoscope. This real-time 3D imaging sonar is a unique inspection tool which generates high resolution 3D underwater images in real time. Employing highly innovative multi-element transducer design, high speed digital signal processing, advanced sonar beam forming techniques and intuitive image display software it excels where conventional 2D sonars fail to deliver. Suitable for hull mount, over-the-side mount or ROV (remotely operated vehicle) installation, Echoscope can be deployed quickly from vessels of opportunity and is ideally suited to port and harbor security applications. Significant interest has been established in this impressive product from a number of US defense organizations such as NAVSEA, ONR, US Coast Guard and initial sales have already been made to these, as well as other organizations in Europe and Asia.
As well as its headquarters in the U.S., Coda Octopus has branches in Scotland, England and Norway. With over 50 years' combined expertise and three resident geophysicists, the company provides innovative skills and technologies to clients worldwide. It also enjoys a hard-earned reputation for exceptional support and advice with a team of experts on call around the clock.
For Coda Octopus company and product information, see www.codaoctopus.com. More information on Platinum TV's "Business & Beyond" series can be found at www.platinumtelevision.com.
Contact information: Coda Octopus Group, Inc.
Bill Ahearn, Vice-President - Technology , (914) 277-4819; (888) 340-2627
bill.ahearn@codaoctopus.com
www.codaoctopus.com
info@codaoctopus.com
Date: March 2, 2005
Organization: U.S. Coast Guard's Maritime Safety and Security Team
Coast Guard's anti-terror unit at the ready with an ROV
Island-based team unveils homeland security capabilities
Coast Guard Island, California (Alameda Times-Star)- With a roomful of high-tech equipment, underwater robots, the latest in chemical protective gear and two frisky explosive-detecting dogs named Max and Hawk, the U.S. Coast Guard's Maritime Safety and Security Team showed off its now-complete homeland security capabilities Tuesday at an open house for local law enforcement agencies. "These are the tools that evolved after the Sept. 11 attacks," said Commanding Officer Mike Baroody, who greeted members of nearly every police department in the area, including Oakland, Alameda and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.
"We're one of the new units established after 9/11, commissioned in 2003," Baroody said. "And it's been kind of a ramp-up process to develop our training and equipment. So now, after a year, we've reached the point of full operational capability. We're as ready as we can get."
The unit has been described as the marine version of a SWAT team, out patrolling San Francisco Bay, ready with high-tech radiation detection equipment, specially outfitted boats and high-powered rifles. "Our guys are trained to go on board and take control of a vessel," Baroody said.
One of the team's newest devices is a VideoRay, an 8-pound remotely operated vehicle. It's a mini-remote submarine with cameras that looks a little like a small food-processor with pontoons. It's designed to search for explosives on the bottom of ships' hulls and around pier facilities and will augment the unit's seven-member dive team.
Also on display were handheld radiation detection units, protective suits, chemical gear and a detection device to home in on trace amounts of chemicals and narcotics.
The Coast Guard also has invested heavily in nonlethal technology, Baroody said, such as a "net-entangling system" in which a large web of netting is shot out to the front of a suspicious speeding boat whose pilot has refused to stop. The net catches in the propellers and slows the boat down.
Above and beyond all the gadgets are the highly trained team members. The 100-person, six-boat unit is the eighth in the country established in response to 9/11. The Maritime Transportation Anti-terrorism Act of 2002 allocated more than $5 billion to Coast Guard programs, and the first Coast Guard security and safety team was commissioned in 2002 in Seattle, 10 months after the attacks.
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