GO Science Wins "Ring-Wing" Submarine Contract From Oil Company.
Popular Science (9/10, Hsu) reports, "Engineers from GO Science, an engineering firm specializing in aerodynamic robots, have struck a $10 million deal with an unnamed oil company. GO's ring-wing foil concept has applications for aerial vehicles as well, but the startup company has currently focused on undersea flyers."
The UK's Register (9/9, Page) reported, "The ring-wing subfoil...is 33 per cent more efficient than the best alternative underwater form factor, and it can easily do an impressive 8 knots on battery power," according to the company. Yet, "this is not the primary reason for the oil biz's interest. Rather, the deal was sealed by GO Science's other flavour of sauce - its autonomous, acoustic-link swarming technology." GO said that "the plan is to deploy a mighty swarm of up to 2,500 Ring Hydro Vessel Agent Under-liquid (RHyVAU) subdroids, which will navigate partially by compass/inertial means and partly using sonic signals emitted both from each other and from a surface reference unit using GPS satnav."
