One of the parameters we have been asked about most regularly is pH.  We are now delighted to announce that the ANB Sensors S-1000 pH sensor is available as a payload for the ecoSUBm5 AUV, it can be combined with a range of payloads including Conductivity, Temperature, Chlorophyll-a, Turbidity and Dissolved Oxygen to offer an excellent Science class set up for our users.

The S-1000 pH sensor is a high accuracy sensor with initial accuracy of +/- 0.05 pH and is calibration free.  It samples once every 23 seconds whilst on mission and can provide a useful tool in measuring ocean acidification.  Software integration and mechanical design are complete and we look forward to providing this to many ecoSUB users in the future.

Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this configuration yet, but below is a rendered image of an ecoSUBm5 with the flow tube and exhaust visible for the S-1000 pH sensor, along with a Sea-Bird Scientific three channel Chl/CDOM/BB sensor, Valeport CT sensor, Water Linked DVL and nano-modem.

Iain, Alex and Ayana finally got the chance to get out on the water this month, after what seems like a long time! We spent the day out on the Plymouth Quest helping James Fishwick and colleagues at PML capture some footage of their new ecoSUB AUVs for the Marine Tech Expo event.  If you missed the Marine Tech Expo, catch up with it here 

ecoSUB Robotics have launched their range of Science series, Scout series and Hydrocarbon Sniffer series vehicles.  Whilst users can configure any ecoSUB AUV with sensor payloads to meet their own needs, the addition of pre-configured vehicles covering a range of applications is intended to make procuring AUV technology as easy as possible.
 
Science series – focused on measuring physical and biogeochemical parameters for users in research, commercial and defense applications.  Science series vehicles are equipped to measure Conductivity, Temperature, Salinity, Speed of Sound, Chlorophyll-a, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen and pH.
 
Scout series – for survey applications the ecoSUBm can be deployed with Side Scan Sonar and DVL for high accuracy navigation, especially when used in conjunction with Network Localisation for navigating through the water column.
 
Hydrocarbon Sniffer series – focused on providing detection and measurement of crude oil in water, principally to provide the offshore oil and gas community with low-cost solutions for rapid and targeted data collection.  These vehicles are ideal for emergency response incidents where rapid environmental assessment and oil plume tracking is required.  Multiple ecoSUB-Hydrocarbon Sniffer AUVs can provide wide spatial resolution and timely data collection.
 
For more information, please contact us via sales@ecosub.uk or find out more at www.ecoSUB.uk

ecoSUB Robotics are exhibiting at the virtual event, MATS 2020 (Marine Autonomy & Technology Showcase) this week (10-12 November).

Iain will be giving a talk on Thursday 12 November at 14:15 GMT during the themed session 'The System', chaired by Dan Hook.

To register please visit: https://noc-events.co.uk/mats-showcase-2020 

Click here to read a recent paper published in Remote Sensing, Adaptable Underwater Networks: The Relation between Autonomy and Communications.  ecoSUB's work with Network Localisation is used as a case study from Page 14. Our own Jeremy Sitbon, and our colleague from NOC, Davide Fenucci, are co-authors.

We have added a YouTube channel to help share some of the videos we have pulled together featuring ecoSUB - please visit to take a look and subscribe for updates 

Our ecoSUBm5 Scout+, also nick-named the 'Tardis', has finally entered the water, albeit a swimming pool for ballasting ahead of lake trials later this week.  COVID-19 has challenged all of us over the last six months+ and the need to rely on pools in back gardens instead of our usual test tanks is the perfect example of this.

The ecoSUBm5 Scout+ features a Marine Sonic Technology ARC Scout Mk II 1800KHz side scan sonar system with ECHO Altimeter for altitude control, we have also integrated the Valeport CT-F sensor (conductivity, temperature and fluorometer for Chlorophyll-a), a GoPro H7 with 300m rated housing and nano-modem for network localisation and advanced navigation. 

Thanks to the recent advances in DVL technology, we can also integrate a WaterLinked A-50 DVL to improve navigation further.

This platform is a serious tool for science and survey work, it's small and easy to operate without extensive infrastructure, AND it carries an ecoSUB price tag... not that we pay it much attention, but it's probably around 10% of the cost of other equivalent AUVs.

We could not be prouder of our engineers that have worked so hard on the development during a really testing period. 

For further information please email us via sales@ecosub.uk.