The California-based firm offers a wide range of solutions that includes Oceanography and Climate Data Solutions, Fisheries Data Solutions and Environmental Data Solutions. The company claims that by augmenting traditional ships with a fleet of Saildrones, one can cost-effectively and autonomously gather data over large ocean areas in any conditions. Launched and retrieved from a dock, the Saildrone fleet navigates to its destination using wind power alone, transiting at three to five knots. Each drone can then hold station or perform survey patterns best suited for the specific research mission. Saildrones have sailed over 60,000 nautical miles, with missions in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Bering Sea.
Richard Jenkins, Founder and CEO of Saildrone said, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with like-minded investors, who are mission driven and have deep expertise in marrying innovative hardware with big data.”
Data collected by the Saildrones will not only transform the understanding of our oceans, but will also bring insight into issues like weather, fish populations, ocean acidification and climate change processes that will affect every person on this planet. Understanding these processes, and their rate of change, is crucial to our economies and ultimately, our survival.
How does it work?
It has custom sensors, and the company constantly works to integrate new sensing capabilities into the Saildrone fleet. Also the data is transmitted back to shore via satellite and is delivers through its API. Moreover, the company’s client portal can be accessed on any computer or smart phone / tablet for live data manipulation and visualization. The Saildrones can be re-tasked, in real time to measure interesting features with greater resolution. Basically it takes care of all the live operations, right from launch & retrieval of the drones to piloting the fleet in busy waterways.
