Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. January 25, 2021
The Sea Machines-enabled autonomous vessel Sigsbee conducts survey missions seven days per week, effectively doubling the conventional productivity. (Photo: DEA)
An unmanned vessel is now surveying more than 3,500 nautical miles of the Western Galveston Bay, near the Houston Ship Channel.
DEA Marine Services, a division of David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA), in Vancouver, Wash., equipped its survey boat Sigsbee with a Sea Machines Robotics SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm control system to fulfill a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contract.
Sigsbee, which is serving as an autonomous daughter craft for the project, is effectively doubling coverage by operating without an onboard crew, while collaboratively following another DEA-staffed hydrographic survey vessel, which serves as the mothership. The goal is to cover the Bay’s large and shallow survey areas more efficiently th