Recent advances in ocean technology have elevated the role and potential of uncrewed systems across a range of marine industries, with artificial intelligence (AI) as the great enabler. In an increasingly connected world, in which information and communication technologies (ICT) are bolstered by an expanding Internet of Things (IoT), the ocean sector is fast approaching the realm of autonomy. However, any suggestion that, before long, conventional at-sea operations will be fully governed by an ecosystem of self-governing robots is somewhat misguided.

Amid all the promise of an emerging generation of AI-inspired ocean technologies—innovations set to bring game-changing levels of automation and efficiency to future ways of working at sea—the multi-purpose oceanic winch has been something of an unsung hero: Since its inception, the marine winch, in its many forms, has proved instrumental to our capacity to explore the blue planet.

In November, The Metals Company (TMC) announced the successful retrieval of 3,000 tonnes of potato-size polymetallic nodules from seafloor depths of over 4,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). In total, over 4,500 tonnes were harvested by a custom Allseas-designed collector vehicle, of which 1,500 tonnes were purposely left on the seafloor, with the remainder being transported to the deck of the recently outfitted Hidden Gem via a 4.3-km riser pipe system.

Okeanus Science & Technology, LLC (Okeanus), an international provider of specialized ocean equipment and marine engineering services, today announced the successful delivery of a 1,500 m depth rated, 500 kg safe working load, underwater mooring winch custom designed for integration within a large displacement uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) earlier this year.

Okeanus Science & Technology, LLC (Okeanus), an established provider of turnkey marine survey systems and oceanographic equipment, today revealed details of the first season-long deployment of a custom Okeanus ECO2000 winch which was commissioned by the Antarctic Science Platform to support the study of ice dynamics at the Kamb Ice Stream camp on the Siple Coast of Antarctica.

Okeanus Science & Technology, LLC (Okeanus), an established provider of marine equipment and engineering services, recently revealed how some of the company’s deck-handling equipment proved instrumental to the discovery of the iconic US Revenue Cutter Bear. The shipwreck was located during a 2019 geophysical reconnaissance mission off Nova Scotia carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and CSA Ocean Sciences (CSA).