Cellula Robotics and HonuWorx Collaborate to Revolutionize Underwater Technology Landscape

Rendering showing the Loggerhead concept. XLUUV with deployed ROV conducting offshore wind farm inspection. Photo courtesy of HonuWorx Ltd. (CNW Group/Cellula Robotics Ltd.)

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to announce a collaboration with HonuWorx Ltd. to assist in a series of technology demonstrations, marking a significant milestone in the development of Cellula's groundbreaking extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle, Solus-XR.

Cellula's Solus-XR XLUUV will play a vital role in showcasing HonuWorx's Loggerhead concept, which represents a revolutionary solution for the subsea industry. The Loggerhead concept is a pioneering approach that utilizes an extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) as a mobile power and communication hub for Light Work Class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Unlike other emerging uncrewed vessel concepts, Loggerhead avoids deployment challenges caused by adverse weather conditions by operating its systems subsea and eliminating the risks associated with launching ROVs and AUVs through the splash-zone. This approach simplifies and optimizes the design of the vehicles for their intended tasks.

"The collaboration between Cellula and HonuWorx represents a significant advancement in underwater technology," said Adrian Woodroffe, Director of Business Development at Cellula Robotics. "With the extended range capabilities of Solus-XR combined with HonuWorx's innovative subsea inspection and intervention techniques, we are poised to revolutionize underwater operations."

The Loggerhead approach holds immense promise for the defense and energy industries, offering improved operational efficiency, cost reductions, and a smaller environmental footprint.

Lucas Wissmann, Co-Founder at HonuWorx, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, "The upcoming demonstrations will demonstrate an ROV deployment model that promises to disrupt the economics of subsea work and reshape the landscape of underwater technology. Our companies share a pioneering spirit and a shared vision, which will forge new frontiers to disrupt the sector and unlock value."

Both Cellula Robotics and HonuWorx are committed to pushing the boundaries of underwater technology, ensuring the delivery of innovative and sustainable solutions for global underwater operations.

Canadian fuel cell powered AUV demonstrated at Autonomous Warrior 23 in Australia

Responding to an invitation from the Royal Australian Navy, Cellula Robotics Ltd. from Burnaby, Canada has successfully mobilised and operated the long range, hydrogen fuel cell powered AUV, Solus-LR as part of Autonomous Warrior 23 at HMAS Creswell (Jarvis Bay), Australia.  Solus-LR is 8.5 meters in length, displaces 3.7 tonnes and is the first fuel cell powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to operate in Australian waters.

As part of Autonomous Warrior 23, Solus-LR has successfully completed multiple fuel cell powered subsea missions. These missions included rapid environmental assessment over a range of mine like objects and acoustic characterization by static and mobile assets.

Solus-LR was designed and built by Cellula Robotics Ltd. and delivered to Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC), under the All Domain Situational Awareness Program.  Cellula Robotics Ltd., with support from DRDC, continues to develop the Solus-LR platform with the ambition of helping to fulfill Canada’s need for a large-scale, persistent, subsea surveillance capability in the Arctic.

Cellula successfully completes sea trials of Imotus-S off the coast of British Columbia

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to announce the successful completion of Imotus-S AUV sea trials. Imotus-S enables deployed vessels to easily monitor their magnetic and acoustic signature in a timely manner without having to leave station.

November 2022 - Cellula’s Imotus-S drone being deployed off an RCN Orca class vessel in Saanich Inlet

The sea trials, executed in the Saanich Inlet over the course of two weeks starting November 14th, served to meet various project milestones including acoustic ranging, magnetic ranging, and understanding safe distance to the vessel while maintaining control authority.

The demonstration provided training of test department staff with handling and operating the Imotus-S drone and was run with the support of a Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Orca class vessel, PCT Cougar, as part of Cellula’s ongoing work with the Department of National Defence (DND) through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Test Stream program.

“Seeing Imotus-S being deployed from and working in tandem with the Orca vessel has been a fantastic step in Cellula’s signature measurement program” said Jacqueline Nichols, Business Development. “In conjunction with the invaluable feedback received to date, the opportunity of working closely with DND throughout the program enabled us to understand the challenges for signature measurement and management.”

“Since the Imotus-S project announcement, we’ve been looking forward to open water testing and deploying Imotus-S off an Orca class vessel” said Warren Priyadamkol, Project Engineer at DND. “With the successful completion of the sea trials, we will now focus on analysing the data sets obtained from the AUV.” 

In-depth analysis of the recorded data, including comparison to known acoustic and magnetic signatures of the Orca vessel is ongoing from the test department. Discussions and feedback from the Saanich Inlet trials will move the Imotus-S program one step closer to the establishment of an autonomous underwater ranging capability.

Cellula Divests its Seafloor Drill Division

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to announce the acquisition of its Seafloor Drill Division by a confidential client.

The sale, completed on September 2, 2022 will facilitate Cellula's focus on development of proven, trusted autonomy as it brings its industry leading fuel cell powered, long range AUVs, Solus-LR and -XR to market. The investment will also support the ongoing development of Imotus-S, Cellula's latest AUV innovation for vessel signature measurement.

"We are thrilled to complete this milestone in Cellula's history" said Eric Jackson, President at Cellula, "with our recent focus on AUVs, the opportunity presented itself at a key time. We look forward to pivoting our efforts on AUV development and innovation."

Previous seafloor drill projects under the Cellula brand included ROVDrill & ROVDrill MkII for Canyon Offshore, subsystems for the Forum M80 and BGS RD2. Cellula's most recent drill developments were the CRD100 drills supplied to Fukada and JAMSTEC in Japan. Cellula will continue to support our valued CRD100 clients around the world.

Minister of Transport announces funding for new technologies to reduce underwater noise from marine vessels

Underwater noise from boats can negatively impact the marine environment and vulnerable marine mammals— including species like the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. That is why the Government of Canada is investing in new technologies that will help reduce underwater noise from vessels on Canada’s waters.

Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced more than $3.1 million for 22 projects to help reduce the impact of underwater vessel noise.  

Projects are funded through Transport Canada’s Quiet Vessel Initiative and builds on previous actions taken to keep the marine ecosystem safe, such as the Whales Initiative. As part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to keep marine mammals safe, the Quiet Vessels Initiative will help protect the marine environment more than ever before.

Cellula Robotics was funded $150,000 to install hydrophones and other equipment onto Solus-LR, a Hydrogen-Powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, to conduct a two-week operation to collect background acoustic and environmental data in Southern Resident killer whale habitat. The data will be made available to support future research into the effects of vessel traffic on orca populations. It will also demonstrate the viability of zero-emission technology for use in monitoring underwater vessel noise.

For more information, visit the official Government of Canada website.

Cellula Successfully Completes Demonstration Missions Using Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered AUV

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is excited to announce the successful completion of various demonstration missions using the hydrogen fuel cell powered autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), Solus-LR. 

The missions, executed in Vancouver's Indian Arm inlet on July 15th, demonstrated the remarkable autonomous launch of a micro-AUV from Solus-LR while submerged and underway.  Following the launch, the micro-AUV surfaced and transmitted a status message to Solus-LR's command and control center via Iridium satellite.  The operation was the first of its kind and demonstrated near real-time, over-the-horizon communications from a submerged AUV.

The demonstration was observed by representatives from Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS), the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC), Defence Science & Technology Group (DSTG Australia) and the Minister of State for Trade, Vancouver-Fraserview, George Chow, as part of Cellula's ongoing work with TAS' SeaWolf program.

Built on a research and development project originally sponsored by DRDC under the All Domain Situational Awareness (ADSA) Science and Technology (S&T) Program that developed Solus-LR, the mission re-enforced the capabilities and potential of a long-range, hydrogen fuel cell powered AUV designed for submerged missions in excess of 2,000 km.

CEO of TAS, Professor Jason Scholz said: "We were extremely impressed to see these novel technologies, particularly the hydrogen fuel-cell succeed in sea trial conditions. This type of power provides an additional viable option to diesel, battery-only and nuclear propulsion. Cellula Robotics continue to impress on the SeaWolf program, along with the contributions of our many Australian partners in the consortium. We aim to continue to develop this capability option for Defence consideration."

Cellula Appoints Industry Veteran, Neil Manning, Into Advisory Role

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to partner with Neil Manning to support the development of business structure, strategy, and growth opportunities. 

With over 27 years of experience, Neil's strategic insight into the offshore marine sector has helped commercialize safe and reliable new technology innovations to increase efficiencies across the subsea energy, telecom, wind, and defence sectors. His unique expertise has consistently provided value by identifying market gaps to differentiate companies and deliver a competitive edge.

"I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to contribute to what I see as the world's most experienced AUV development teams. I'll be contributing to business structure and strategic planning along with market positioning at Cellula," comments Neil. "We share the same views on the direction of the Blue Economy and the next phase of the company's exciting growth trajectory already looks exponential. I feel this is attributed to its hydrogen-powered AUV technology, which I'm very excited about.  Contributing advisory strategies and supporting Cellula Robotics' tenacious team to reach its goals is an honour especially as I am passionate about marine technology."

"We are excited to be working with Neil on Cellula's strategic planning," says Eric Jackson, President. "His expertise combined with his intuition and professionalism will undoubtedly help Cellula transition into the next stage of growth within the industry."

Throughout his C-suite leadership, Neil has built top-performing teams and organizational structures to focus the collective energy of sales, product development, and service applications to exceed customer expectations. His leadership has leveraged organic and investment capital allowing companies to grow and realize opportunities.  

Cellula Receives Contract for Design and Build of an Imotus-S AUV for Signature Measurements of Marine Vessels

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to announce a contract through Innovative Solutions Canada's Testing Stream for the build and test of a hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for use in underwater measurements of a ship's acoustic and magnetic signature.

Rendering showing Cellula’s Imotus-S system.

The innovation, known as Imotus-S, builds on Cellula's existing commercial Imotus AUV and is configured with an Ocean Sonics hydrophone and an Ocean Floor Geophysics self-compensating magnetometer.

Imotus-S will test the ability to be deployed from a marine vessel to provide magnetic and acoustic signature measurements in open water. This potential capability would enable deployed vessels to easily monitor their signature in a timely manner without having to leave station.

"We are thrilled to be working with the Department of National Defence on testing our solution that will complement and extend current vessel signature management capabilities" comments Jacqueline Nichols, Business Development. "With only two fixed ranges in Canada, Cellula hopes to reduce operational constraints where ships must travel to a range for measurement."

The test program for the Imotus-S system will allow for data obtained to be compared to traditional range measurements and pave the path to a shipborne, containerized solution in the form of a fleet currently under development at Cellula. The innovation is currently scheduled to be tested in Q4 2022 near Saanich, BC.

Raewyn Charlesworth Named New Director of Business Support for Cellula Robotics

Cellula Robotics Ltd. is pleased to announce Raewyn Charlesworth has been appointed Director of Business Support. Raewyn will oversee Cellula’s Office Management, HR, Health & Safety, Quality Management, and IT infrastructure.

“In the past ten years, I’ve had the honour of watching Cellula grow into the unique company it is today. During that time I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the people who have made Cellula an exciting place to work, and I look forward to fostering this next stage of growth with them.” comments Raewyn on her new role.

Raewyn previously served as Cellula’s Quality Manager, transitioning the company to the ISO 9001:2015 quality standard. She also managed four projects as a Junior Project Manager.

Cellula Completes CRD100 Seafloor Drill Maintenance and Upgrade Program

Cellula Robotics Ltd. has successfully completed the mid-life maintenance and upgrade to Fukada Salvage and Marine Works Co., Ltd. (Fukada)’s Unicorn-1 Seafloor Drill, based on Cellula’s CRD100 Seafloor Drill. The upgrades, including improvements for increased automation and a new user interface, incorporates many lessons learnt from the last six years of offshore work, resulting in greater operational efficiency, functionality and lifespan of the drill.  

The drill arrived at Cellula in January 2022 with Factory Acceptance Testing completed May 2022. Unicorn-1 is scheduled to arrive in June 2022 to Fukada in Osaka, Japan to support their next project.

Cellula has continued to support Fukada and the CRD100 since delivery in 2014. Previous upgrades have included a high-definition camera package for landing and bore-hole monitoring and a Cone Penetrometer Test (CPT) system complete with outrigger legs.

Fukada Salvage and Marine Works Co., Ltd., headquartered in Osaka, Japan is involved in marine salvage, steel structure installation, offshore engineering, and other infrastructural improvement projects. FSM is currently introducing deep-sea research equipment and other cutting-edge assets to a fleet of six offshore support vessels to aggressively tackle ocean development projects. For more information, please visit the FSM website.