Vehicles

Seaformatics Systems
Seaformatics Systems is a new startup ocean technology
company with its sights set on changing the way oceans are
monitored subsea – especially in remote and difficult to access,
harsh environments – through its subsea power harvesting
and telemetry systems. A barrier to collecting long term
data in these environments is a sustainable supply of power to
the instruments and data communications infrastructure. With
the challenges imposed by such environmental conditions one
of the only suitable power sources are batteries. Specialized
vessels must be used to deploy and recover data from the systems
that have exhausted their batteries – a very costly, time
consuming, and risky endeavor that can only be completed
when ice and weather conditions allow access to the area.
Seaformatics’ solution is to provide products that harvest
power from ocean currents and communicate data wirelessly
back to shore through an underwater acoustic network. Its
patented turbine systems generate power from low-speed
ocean currents to allow sensors to be deployed over a longer
period without the need for large and expensive battery
banks or frequent field excursions to conduct maintenance. Its
networking technology allows these systems to be placed at
low cost and are easily relocated. The team has completed an
18-month test and evaluation of four full-scale Power Harvesting
Bottom Mount (PHBM) systems. The test and evaluation
program was cosponsored by Husky Energy to learn more
about the systems’ long-term durability and performance for
possible application in future offshore operations. The testing
commenced in June of 2014 and was completed in January
of 2016. All of the units were deployed in Placentia Bay,
off the Newfoundland coast, in approximately 20m of water.
During the testing period, the PHBMs realized an average
current speed of 0.08 m/s and supplied continuous power to
Sontek Argonaut XR ADCPs. Two of the units were exposed
to higher short term peak currents of 0.4 m/s and harvested
over 1kWhr, effectively doubling the life of the ADCP’s batteries
over the evaluation period. Today Seaformatics offers
two products, the PHBM and MPG. The PHBM is a bottom
deployed unit that can house multiple sensors and can include
optional release and recovery mechanism. The MPG, a scaled
down version of the PHBM technology, is configured to be
integrated with any moored system or buoys to power sensors
and systems at any level in the water column.
Image: Seaformatics Systems
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