ecoSUB AUVs have been developed through extensive collaboration, and many partner organisations have been involved in joint projects and initiatives that have advanced our progress.  Notably, many engineers from the National Oceanography Centre have played active roles at various stages of ecoSUBs development, keenly led by Dr Alex Phillips from the NOC's Marine Autonomous Robotics Systems group (MARS) during our early years of system development.

Our operational team below, are supported by Directors, Carole Sloane & Graham Sloane together with an Advisory Board representing Science, Energy and Defence.

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M: +447774180179
​E: [email protected]

Terry Sloane
Managing Director

Terry has been involved in ocean engineering in one form or another for 40 years. Trained originally as an electronics engineer, he is a fellow of both IMarEST & the Royal Meteorological Society.  Terry served as chairman of the Marine Science & Technology Group (formally AMSI) until 2022, a constituent group of the Society of Maritime Industries).  Terry is a founder member of the IMarEST Operational Oceanography SIG and is a council member of the Challenger Society for Marine Science and the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT). Terry is a member of the Mary Rose Trust, learning and education team and provides guest lecturers in data logging to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in marine archeology; he has also been a technical consultant to the BBC.
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Terry has served as both technical director and sales and marketing director of some of the industry’s best known companies and formed Planet Ocean Ltd in 2003 and subsequently ecoSUB Robotics Limited in 2016.

Terry has overall responsibility for the ecoSUB concept and direction of the ecoSUB project ensuring that the focus remains firmly on end user expectations.

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M: +447788201875
​E: [email protected]

Iain Vincent
Director & General Manager

​Iain Vincent is a graduate in Marine Environmental Science from the University of Portsmouth, UK. Iain is a founder member of the Society of Maritime Industries, Marine Autonomous Systems Group.

Iain has extensive experience working with key marine science institutions across the UK as well as international manufacturers of sensor technology, and benefits from many productive relationships with members of the science community. Iain has led programs to secure funding for the development of ecoSUB AUVs and has been involved in the concept design, stakeholder engagement, project delivery and direction of the ecoSUB program.

​In 2016 Iain was appointed as a Director of ecoSUB Robotics Limited, the company formed to spin out the low cost AUV technology developed in collaboration between Planet Ocean and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and was appointed General Manager in 2022. 

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E: [email protected]

Peter Hanley
Head of Mechanical Design and Engineering

Pete is a graduate of the University of Portsmouth and has worked with ecoSUB since 2016, providing mechanical design for the AUVs platforms and developing.  Pete's role has been critical in the transition from our early prototype systems to our production vehicles, ensure ecoSUB AUVs are easy to use platforms.

Pete has been working in the marine autonomous systems sector for nearly 10 years and prior to that worked in mechanical design for Formula 1.

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E: [email protected]

Naomi Gold
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Naomi is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over a decade of experience designing equipment for demanding environments. She has held roles at leading engineering firms including Jaguar Land Rover and Dyson and has contributed to award winning start-ups focused on sustainable technologies; from precision harvesting robots for agriculture to devices that support responsible fishing practices.

Certified in PRINCE2 project management, Naomi brings a hands-on, solutions-focused approach to every project. She thrives on close collaboration with end users, especially during deployment and field testing. In 2016, she co-developed the original ecoSUB AUVs at the National Oceanography Centre, and was excited to re-join the team in Summer 2025.

Outside of work, Naomi enjoys surfing, exploring the outdoors and adventuring in her camper van.

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Dr Tom Rooney
Senior Robotics R&D Engineer

Tom is a long-time friend of the ecoSUB Robotics team.  Tom has joined the ecoSUB Robotics R&D team to invest his expertise, working on the advancement of ecoSUB technology, and to collaborate on some exciting technology development. 
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Tom's experience is extensive; he has a PhD in Robotics and worked across a wide range of maritime robotics projects and his research areas are in challenging environment robotics.

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​E: [email protected]

Dr Yukiyasu Noguchi
Senior Robotics & Software Engineer

Yuki has a PhD, Masters and Batchelor of Engineering from University of Tokyo, Japan.

Yuki is a Robotics Software Engineer and Marine Roboticist with over 8 years of experience developing autonomy, perception, and mapping solutions for underwater vehicles, including both remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Skilled in bridging research and industry, with a strong record of delivering reliable, field-tested systems in challenging subsea environments.

Yuki has contributed to the world’s first successful autonomous inspection of subsea infrastructure in a live operational setting, and led the development of core mapping and sonar technologies for commercial applications. Known for thoughtful software design, clear communication, and effective collaboration across technical teams. Yuki's work has been published in leading robotics journals.

Yuki is based in our ecoSUB lab at the NOC in Southampton.​

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​E: [email protected]

Jonathan Law
Robotics & Embedded Software Engineer

Jonathan has a Masters (with Distinction) from UCL in Robotics & Computation and is a graduate with first class honours in Electrical Engineering.

Jonathan has experience developing robotic control theory and machine learning applications, using robot vision navigation and SLAM, notably, to control a robotic gripper system.  Fluent in C++, Python and ROS, Jonathan is critical to the ecoSUB R&D team to develop, test and document the software architecture for our AUV systems and work across the exciting system developments in the ecoSUB pipeline. 

​Jonathan is based in our ecoSUB lab at the NOC in Southampton.

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T: +442380591509 
​E: [email protected]

Leif Klingsheim
Production, Procurement & Test Manager - Marine Robotics Systems

Leif leads our ecoSUB division production capability overseeing procurement, production and test; developing the systems and process required to support the growing ecoSUB order book.

Leif is a graduate of the University of Oslo, Norway & Narvik University College and has served in the Andenes Airforce.

Leif is based at our manufacturing site in Petersfield, Hampshire, UK.

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E: [email protected]

Danny Robinson
Finance Manager 

Danny has been with Planet Ocean since 2004, Danny manages the finances for the ecoSUB division.

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E: [email protected]

Jordan Robinson
Business & Finance Administrator 

Jordan supports both Finance and Procurement processes within the ecoSUB Robotics division.
 
Jordan joined the ecoSUB team in Summer 2025 and rapidly grew into his role, taking on significant responsibility for much of the financial administration, but also supporting the team in the Petersfield manufacturing site.

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The whole team...

Developing ecoSUB AUVs has been a huge collaborative effort involving many partners from a wide range of organisations, notably National Oceanography Center, but also other academic and research institutes, companies and organisations.  We would love to recognise everyone, but the list is too long, so we give special thanks to Dr Alex Phillips, NOC, who provided technical leadership to the ecoSUB engineering team during its early years.

Key sub-contractors:
​Mark Chalmers  -  Franck Sitbon

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Follow this link to find out more about our Advisory Board, supporting the work of the ecoSUB Robotics team