A Charted Planet

Saildrone’s fleet of small and medium uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) provide near-shore and open-ocean bathymetry solutions that meet or exceed International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) standards.

An accurate map of the seafloor is vital not only to navigation and transportation, but also for telecommunications, offshore energy, fisheries, and physical oceanography. Oceans make up more than 70% of Earth’s surface, but only about 20% of the ocean has been mapped using modern, high-resolution technology. Our oceans must be explored, mapped, and characterized to fully understand their impact to planetary processes.

Bathymetry surveys that meet standards set by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) typically require an ocean survey vessel with an embarked team of trained personnel to operate the equipment—an extremely expensive and time-consuming undertaking, further limited by fuel requirements, provisioning, and weather. Saildrone’s autonomous platforms provide cost-effective solutions for single-beam and multibeam bathymetric interoperable data acquisition at scale, from coastal environments to the deep ocean.