Uncrewed Systems Technology 047 l Aergility ATLIS l AI focus l Clevon 1 UGV l Geospatial insight l Intergeo 2022 report l AUSA 2022 report I Infinity fuel cell l BeeX A.IKANBILIS l Propellers focus I Phoenix Wings Orca

20 B en Kinnaman, founder and CEO of Greensea Systems and originator of the Open Software and Equipment Architecture (OpenSea) robotics platform, came up through the hands-on, practical side of the marine industry. Now in his late 40s, he left school as soon as he could and went to work offshore as a salvage diver before moving into ROVs as a technician and then a supervisor, returning to education with a focus on robotics and control systems along the way. While working with ROVs, it became obvious to him that the industry had evolved in a way that made the integration of new systems and technologies slow and difficult. “Our industry came up very pragmatically. We had technicians developing and building machines to work deeper, safer and accomplish more, but in doing so we ended up in a lot of silos: everyone was doing things a bit differently. Other robotics industries grew out of academia and government-funded initiatives, and they brought standards forward early. “I saw an opportunity to create a platform that would allow our industry to advance at the rate of other industries,” he says. Breaking down the silos The purpose of the resulting open architecture platform was to break down those silos and make it easy for the industry to transition to new technologies, share ideas and to integrate new sensors, payloads and packages. These days, OpenSea is deployed on about 2500 underwater vehicles and related systems, both crewed and uncrewed. “From a technical perspective, the challenge is really around how to build a platform that is flexible and scalable, that people can use to advance robotics but that stops short of over-specifying the end result. So it is really about The head of Greensea Systems explains the technologies behind his company’s open offshore robotics platform. Peter Donaldson reports Open waters December/January 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The OpenSea robotics platform runs around 2500 UUVs and related systems, including this autonomous underwater crawler from Greensea company Bayonet Ocean Vehicles (Images courtesy of Greensea Systems)