Seabed survey

SCOOT ship days March 2022

On Friday 18 March we ended SCOOT’s ship week for this time. We plan to be back soon, hopefully with AUV Ran. As always we make it our mission to support entrepreneurs, small and medium sized companies, and basically anyone with an interesting idea. This week we made University of Gothenburg’s new research vessel Skagerak available. We could show images of the blue sky and the glittering ocean (yes, we had nice weather), but we would rather show the continuous data acquisition that goes on the inside of Skagerak. The photo above is from the vessel’s FerryBox system, for continuous measurements of surface water. Curious about the data? Get in touch with SCOOT.

Busy week it has been. Methods have ranged from the very established, like vertical profiling using CTD and sediment sampling using box corer, to the emerging (?) standard of sampling water for eDNA, with consultancy SeAnalytics AB.

At the end of the week we tested two prototypes of a simple 3D-printed temperature mini-logger. We made sure to deploy them at the same depth as the intake for the vessels FerryBox. Both SCOOT and the developing company Deepoid AB will be interested to see how well data from the loggers compare with data from the very well calibrated temperature sensor in the FerryBox system.

SCOOT supports innovation

Do you have an idea about how to get or use ocean data? Then SCOOT wants to support you, with ship time and autonomous platforms and robots, with sensors, expertise and networking. Here is what you should do:

  • Contact us. We want to hear about your ideas.
  • Follow us on Twitter, to learn first about our activities and offers.
  • Sign up for our newsletter, where we summarize what goes on at SCOOT.

Small companies using big robot

She is a mighty beast, SCOOT’s flagrobot AUV Ran: 7 meters long, weighing around 2 tonnes and with a sensor suite like a modern research vessel. In 2019 we demonstrated Ran to a number of SMEs, and in 2020 the startup company Marflow AB got a dedicated day of Ran operation. In March 2021 the turn came to three other small companies to operate and get data acquisition done by AUV Ran: SeAnalytics AB, Ten Island Seafarm AB and Bottenlusen / Vinga Konstruktion AB.

There are more SCOOT days in Ran’s calendar this year, in June and in August/September. Do you want to join? Click the buttons below.

"Our start-up has been a fantastic success, and now we want to grow. Through the support of SCOOT and the surveying done by AUV Ran we are well prepared for expanding our installations at sea. And it was great to work with Stephan Hagerling at Bottenlusen."
"The mapping done by AUV Ran was impressive: The details, the speed, the complete coverage of the area I wanted. I cannot see how I could have got this data in any other way. Through SCOOT I have also started an interesting collaboration with Ten Island Seafarm AB."
"The possibility of using AUV Ran for automated sampling of water in the monitoring of invasive species based on eDNA analysis is very important for us. It is a cost-effective way of covering a large area. Such an 'early warning' system is essential to mitigate invasive species."

Mobilization & preparations

Mission & data acquisition

SCOOT’s flagrobot AUV Ran investigates the effect of subsea earthquake

This is really AUV Ran doing her thing: Deep under, manoeuvring close to the bottom, using her vast sensor suit to scan the environment. This time it is for the benefit of researchers in New Zeeland, investigating the seabed of the 2000 metres deep Kaikōura Canyon. It was transformed by an earthquake in 2016; 850 million tonnes of sediment were displaced!

We expect Ran to be back in Sweden in January. Every once in a while she takes a rest behind SCOOT’s office/workshop at Nya Varvet in Gothenburg. Please contact us if you want use AUV Ran or if you just want to take look. We plan 10 operational SCOOT days for Ran in 2021.