WHAT DOES OSHEN DO?
Oshen make fully autonomous, wind-driven, robots for remote ocean sensing. Just 4ft in length, the design resembles a miniature sailboat. The small size keeps unit costs low and allows the micro-vessels to be deployed en-masse, providing a sensor network for continuous monitoring of waves and weather across our oceans.
Advisors
Brett Phaneuf
Brett is the founder and chief executive of Submergence Group (USA) / MSubs (UK), specialising in robust, manned and unmanned ocean-going systems. A serial entrepreneur, Brett recently lead the development of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship - a 50ft AI powered vessel that crossed the Atlantic in June 2022.
Wayne Pavalko
Founder WRG, Inventor of the MakerBuoy. Driven by a fascination with the Internet of Things applied to the ocean, Wayne pioneered the MakerBuoy - an open source, low cost drifter. From Atlantic crossings to tracking ocean plastic, Wayne’s creations have survived the harshest of ocean environments, often for 600+ days.
![IMG_1645[25679].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/488c30_d625f398c2324d17ac622e7516f6f4bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_153,h_204,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_3,enc_auto/IMG_1645%5B25679%5D_JPG.jpg)
Dr Peter Smout
An Associate Fellow at Rolls Royce, Peter has over 30 years experience in technical engineering challenges, and has contributed to several patents ranging from composite fan blades to a novel method of operating a heat exchanger assembly for a gas turbine engine.
Arthur Richier
Head of Partnerships, strategy and sustainability at Vortexa, a leading energy and shipping AI analytics scale-up, and has featured in Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, The Moscow Times and The Houston Chronicle. His specialist interest in machine learning extends to start-up funding across logistics and insurance.
Get to know us
Why Micro-vessels? Traditional data collection methods, such as drifting buoys, short-range or expensive ASVs or manned ships, are falling short in the face of modern demands for spatially dense weather and environmental data. Drifting buoys, while useful, are limited by their inability to remain in target locations and require an expensive deployment mission. Manned ships, on the other hand, are expensive and not always feasible for continuous data collection. Our autonomous micro-vessels solve these problems by behaving like drifting buoys with a purpose. They harness wind and solar power to navigate and maintain position in desired areas, ensuring a steady stream of reliable data. With our technology, you get the efficiency of drifting buoys and the precision of vessels, but without the drawbacks.
What data do the micro-vessels collect? Our vessels collect meteorological, visual and acoustic data. If you’d like to know more about specific payload or sensor configurations, contact us.
How are they deployed? The micro-vessels are single person deployable: one person can pick up, carry and throw overboard. We’ve launched from beaches, pontoons, fishing boats…
How long can a micro-vessel operate at sea? Our micro-vessels are engineered for endurance. By using wind for propulsion and solar to power the onboard electronics, they don't have a finite range and can operate for months at a time. Onboard batteries power the micro-vessel when solar availability is low (e.g nighttime, heavy storms).
How do I control micro-vessels during a mission? The micro-vessels are fully autonomous and are designed to need minimal supervision or operator training. Choose from two modes: ‘station-keeping’ ie. tracking a set point, or ‘line-tracking’, ie. moving slowly between waypoints.
Timeline
We’re an ambitious company on a mission to provide affordable en-masse ocean data collection. Currently, we’re working hard to pack our micro-vessels full of robust and reliable technology, ready to shift from short offshore trials to multi-month ocean missions. Below, we’ve shared a little about our journey so far, and what you can expect from us in the future.
In the news
“No one has yet been able to sail an autonomous boat across the Atlantic, but a young couple in Wales hope their craft will revolutionise ocean monitoring of temperatures, wildlife and more”
Colin Drury in Caernarfon
(Mon 29 May 2023 15.00 BST)
by Colin Drury in Caernarfon
When Anahita Laverack and Ciaran Dowds tested their robot boat for the first time off the coast of Wales, it was not smooth sailing. The 23-year-olds, both engineering graduates from Imperial College London, launched their autonomous craft – a 4ft, unmanned vessel – from a sailboat off the coast of Aberystwyth last July.
Although the seas were rough, the robot boat “performed beautifully”, says Dowds – but he did not.
“I’m not a sailor,” he says. “I was throwing up everywhere.”
Still, it was a key proof-of-concept moment for the couple’s project to change the way our oceans are monitored. At present, data about the world’s seas – their temperatures, currents, wave sizes, even their biodiversity – is primarily collected by attaching sensors to floating plastic buoys. It is both expensive – because scientists have to charter a boat – and unreliable, because the buoys drift off course.
“The way data is collected from the sea right now is ...
