Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
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Winter 2015 unmanned systems inside 44 M arine companies wanting to de- velop autonomous vehicles, assess a new venture, or tap into the latest research on the ocean environment now have two new research centers created specifically to help them with technical expertise, testing resources and coastal data. Funded with seed money from economi- cally minded state officials, the Center for Marine Robotics at the Woods Hole Oceano- graphic Institution in Massachusetts, and the National Oceans and Applications Research Center (NOARC) at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, are planning to use their respec- tive strengths to attract participation from the private sector. The Center for Marine Robotics will be led by James Bellingham, who founded the Underwa- ter Vehicles Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to co-found Bluefin Robotics. He served as chief technologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California before returning to Mas- sachusetts this fall. "Woods Hole has really pioneered autono- mous underwater vehicle systems," he said, noting the many successful companies like Hy- droid got their start in the state. When a sci- entist has a robot deep in some faraway ocean, he said, the odds are that vehicle was built in Cape Cod or in southeastern Massachusetts by companies that were spun out of Woods Hole and MIT. by Dee Ann Divis His perspective on how commercial operators fit into the overall science and marine commu- nity, he said, has been shaped by his own experi- ence as an entrepreneur. 'These different organizations are tuned to do different things and you really need all of them in order to have a healthy ecosystem," he told Inside Unmanned Systems. "…We want to help these commercial companies grow. We see ourselves as a place where we can test some of the more advanced concepts; maybe foster a whole set of crazy ideas of which, if one or two work, we'll really break through." The center's help will take the form of forums for start-up firms, technical research and meet- ings with experts and a suite of new capabilities to develop and test new systems. Help for Start-Ups The first entrepreneurs meeting, which is free to attend, is in July, Bellingham said. "We will have some people there who are ex- perts in high-tech start-ups to have a conversa- tion about what's different between the marine field and other fields," he said. There will also be an effort to begin lining up a pool of mentors. Other, more in-depth meetings will be open to firms with membership in the center, which starts at $50,000 and goes up to the $1 million dollar level. Those at the opening $50,000 level have the opportunity to attend the center's an- nual meeting and arrange get-togethers with principal investigators. NEW MARINE RESEARCH CENTERS Offer Expertise to Private Sector MARITIME OCEAN RESEARCH