Falcon Flies In Canada's First Nation Waters
The University of Victoria has engaged Ocean Dynamics to deploy a Saab Seaeye Falcon robotic vehicle for the inspection of instrumentation platforms monitoring the ocean around Canada’s north-west coast, particularly in First Nation coastal waters.
A total of 50 instrumentation platforms, together with six observatories are plugged into over 900 kilometres of fibre-optic cable on the seafloor giving internet access to marine scientists and coastal communities to enable evidence-based decision-making on ocean management, disaster mitigation, and environmental protection.
The University’s world-leading Ocean Networks Canada undertaking was launched in 2006 with the first “wired” seafloor observatory. Since then, community observatories have been installed on Vancouver Island, the British Columbia coast and in the Arctic, partnering with First Nations and coastal communities.
Five Powerful Thrusters
Ocean Dynamics undertakes a range of subsea operations within British Columbia’s coastal communities and globally offshore. Ocean Networks Canada chose Ocean Dynamics because of their experience and reliability. Along with its inspection role, the Falcon also assists with the removal and replacement of instrumentation platforms and cabling when needed.
The system comes from packing five powerful thrusters and an intelligent distributed control system into a small, easily manhandled 1 x 0.5 x 0.6 metre-sized vehicle that can adopt different tools and sensors for undertaking numerous intricate and demanding tasks. Rated 300m and 1000m, the Falcon’s power and control make it highly manoeuvrable and able to master strong crosscurrents whilst undertaking exacting tasks with steadiness and precision.
