Ocean Infinity
TypePrivate
IndustryMarine Robotics
FoundedJuly 2017 (2017-07)
Headquarters
Austin, Texas
,
United States
Key people
  • Oliver Plunkett
    (CEO)
Websiteoceaninfinity.com

Ocean Infinity is a marine robotics company based in Austin, Texas, United States and Southampton, United Kingdom and was founded in 2017. The company uses robots to obtain information from the ocean and seabed.

History

Ocean Infinity is based in Austin, Texas and Southampton, England, and was founded in July 2017. The company is led by CEO Oliver Plunkett and is a privately held company.[1][2] Ocean Infinity was created after recognising the effectiveness of using marine robots in scale to acquire and analyse data from the oceans.[3]

Robots

Ocean Infinity operates two robotic fleets; the Armada fleet and the Infinity fleet. The Infinity fleet is made up of fourteen autonomous underwater vehicles that are currently operating in oceans globally and the Armada fleet will initially comprise fifteen robotic ships that will be operational by the end of 2020. The fleets are equipped with sensors and navigation technology and are capable of operating down to 6,000 meters depth.[4][5] The company reported in May 2022 that the first of 23 Armada surface vessels had recently been launched in Vietnam.[6]

Projects

Ocean Infinity was involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in early 2018, deploying Seabed Constructor between January and May without success.[7] In November of the same year, Seabed Constructor located the wreck of Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, which had disappeared a year earlier.[8] At the end of December 2018, Ocean Infinity was contracted by the South Korean government to search for the wreck of the sunken bulk carrier ship Stellar Daisy, which sank in March 2017 in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Uruguay.[9] On 17 February 2019, the company announced that it believed it had found the ship's wreck,[10] and soon afterwards retrieved the voyage data recorder.[11]

In addition to the high-profile wreck searches, Ocean Infinity has also undertaken data acquisition support for Total E&P, Shell Mauritania, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Exxon Mobil, NOAA and Petrobras.[12][13][14][15][16]

In early 2019, the wreck of Grande America was localized by Island Pride, which arrived 30 March and started inspecting the wreck using remotely operated underwater vehicles.[17] In July 2019, the company found the French Navy submarine Minerve, 50 years after its disappearance.[18] In 2020, Ocean Infinity also worked with Search INC to locate the battleship USS Nevada.[19]

Ocean Infinity has also provided technical expertise and equipment to locate Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance which sank 27 October 1915 after having been beset in ice of the Weddell Sea off Antarctica. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust's project Endurance22 was successful on 5 March 2022.

References

  1. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (February 10, 2020). "Ocean survey company goes for robot boats at scale". BBC News.
  2. ↑ "OCEAN INFINITY LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  3. ↑ "Ocean Infinity". Ocean Infinity.
  4. ↑ "Ocean Infinity unveils fleet of robot exploration vessels". Offshore Technology | Oil and Gas News and Market Analysis. February 5, 2020.
  5. ↑ Maritime, Baird (February 10, 2020). "Ocean Infinity to launch 15-vessel AUV fleet under new company".
  6. ↑ "Armada launches to sea". 2022-05-09. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
  7. ↑ "A Search for MH370, Missing Since 2014, Ends 'With a Heavy Heart'". The New York Times. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  8. ↑ "Argentine Submarine San Juan Is Found". The Wall Street Journal. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "Ocean Infinity to Support South Korean Government in Search for Stellar Daisy". oceaninfinity.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  10. ↑ David Aaro (17 February 2019). "South Korean tanker Stellar Daisy found on ocean floor 2 years after it sank, explorers say". Fox News.
  11. ↑ Yonhap (18 February 2019). "Search ship retrieves voyage data recorder from sunken Stellar Daisy". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Ocean Infinity wraps up offshore Angola survey project". Offshore Technology | Oil and Gas News and Market Analysis. March 5, 2020.
  13. ↑ Mishra, Baibhav (September 24, 2019). "Ocean Infinity completes data expedition for Norwegian Petroleum Directorate".
  14. ↑ "NOAA teams with Ocean Infinity to advance new tools for ocean exploration and mapping | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration". www.noaa.gov.
  15. ↑ "Ocean Infinity to provide AUV surveys for Petrobras". January 16, 2019.
  16. ↑ "ExxonMobil picks Ocean Infinity for AUV data acquisition offshore Guyana". Offshore Technology | Oil and Gas News and Market Analysis. March 2, 2020.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ Silvia Ayuso (22 July 2019). "Localizados los restos del 'Minerve', un submarino francés desaparecido en 1968". El País.
  19. ↑ "USS Nevada Located by SEARCH and Ocean Infinity" (Press release). Ocean Infinity – via www.prnewswire.com.
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