CASE STUDY
Sea Machines Autonomy Enables DEA Marine Services to Increase Operational Productivity
May 4, 2021 Share
DEA Marine Services, a division of David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA), of Vancouver, Wash., has invested in and utilized Sea Machines Robotics’ autonomous command and remote helm control system aboard DEA survey vessels to more efficiently fulfil a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contract to survey more than 60 square nautical miles of the West Galveston Bay. Approximately 15% of the total survey mileage was acquired autonomously. The Texas survey, a prototype mission for unmanned operations, posed numerous challenges to marine surveyors, including a large geographic area, variable shallows, numerous obstructions and unpredictable sea conditions. For DEA, Sea Machines’ innovative technology increased the operational productivity of the vessels involved.
January 25, 2021
DEA Marine Services, a division of David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA), in Vancouver, Wash., is leveraging a Sea Machines Robotics SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm control system to fulfill a
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contract that is now surveying more than 3,500 nautical miles of the Western Galveston Bay, near the Houston Ship Channel. The SM300 has been installed aboard the DEA survey boat
Sigsbee, which is serving as an autonomous daughter craft for the project.
Sigsbee is effectively doubling coverage by operating without an onboard crew, while collaboratively following another DEA-staffed hydrographic survey vessel, which serves as the mothership. The goal is to cover the Bay’s large and shallow survey areas more efficiently than traditional, crewed survey vessel operations. DEA operators located aboard the mothership are commanding the autonomous