iXblue announces partnership with “Aggie Ocean Discovery Team” finalist XPRIZE team

iXblue is pleased to partner with the “Aggie Ocean Discovery Team” at Texas A&M as they move forward to become finalist in the “Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.” The student led team will be presented with their award at Oceanology International 2018 during their “Catch the Next Wave” event.

Between January 5th and January 9th 2018 the Aggie Discovery XPRIZE team presented their technology to the XPRIZE® judging panel, in Houston, Texas. Their submission consisted of an AUV “Deep-Marlin™ and RSV “Wahoo™” who together create high resolution bathymetric surveys of the sea floor. Deep-Marlin™ utilizes a Phins Inertial Navigation System (INS) paired with a proprietary intelligent navigation system to operate without the need of a conventional support ship. The Wahoo™ RSV (created by Deep Down Inc.) acts to support Marlin in its operations as well as for launch and recovery, utilizing its STA-PUT® station keep platform.

XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and managing incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, is a three-year global competition challenging teams to advance ocean technologies for rapid, unmanned and high-resolution ocean exploration and discovery.

“We are very excited for having demonstrated our AUV to the XPRIZE judging panel. The Phins system provided us the most accurate positioning possible while being extremely intuitive and easy to integrate with our onboard intelligence” said Nabil Moosajee, Hardware/Software Lead for the Aggie Team.
“Our AUV requires the absolute best equipment on the market to meet the challenging requirements of the XPRIZE® and with iXblue, we expect to exceed any existing AUV on the market today in terms of operation and survey quality. Being able to provide usable data is dependent on a reliable and accurate navigation platform. We are confident that we have chosen the best partner in this field that can accommodate our select needs.”