NOAA TESTS DRIX TO DEMONSTRATE SURVEY FORCE-MULTIPLIER CAPABILITY
The end of 2019 saw DriX sailing alongside a U.S. NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) hydrographic survey vessel, NOAA SHIP Thomas Jefferson for a series of sea trials. Those tests, designed to demonstrate hydrographic survey force-multiplier capability in offshore waters, were successfully conducted thanks to the ship’s crew, DriX and its unique Deployment System (DDS).
“We had the chance to meet with NOOA’s Office of Coast Survey Director, Rear Admiral Shepard M. Smith, right after the launch of DriX in December 2017” explains Guillaume Eudeline, Global Business Developer for the Shipyard division. “He is advancing NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey initiatives by modernizing digital charting, and by increasing the use of autonomous systems for hydrography and was truly impressed with DriX capabilities. We worked through an industrial partnership with the University of New Hampshire in order to test DriX and assess how NOAA and the U.S. hydrographic community could benefit from our USV.” One DriX was subsequently sent to New Hampshire (New England) in October 2018 and stayed with UNH for over a year. The University’s team of surveyors ran a series of tests to assess how DriX could
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DriX Deployment System (DDS) has been designed for the safe and efficient launch and recovery of the USV (Courtesy of iXblue)
