This year the Marine Tech and Ocean Science industry-showcase conference, Oceanology, was held in London and Robyn was fortunate enough to be able to go. This conference is always an exciting one to be part of, with industry giants showcasing their latest developments and smaller companies introducing their innovative technology. A number of interesting talks and demonstrations were available to watch, and as the conference venue was situated on the river front there were plenty of companies taking advantage of the water to showcase their kit.

Robyn writes: Overall, I found it interesting to see more companies finding ways to work more holistically – this showcased itself to me in both the software and the hardware presented. On the software side, I was aware of more companies developing software that can handle the processing of multiple data types from inception, rather than subsequently adding modules to software developed for a specific data type.

With hardware, teams were eager to show how they had developed their high-spec technology to enable to align with the increasingly popular autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Companies were showcasing a more compact versions of their popular equipment specifically for use on ultra-small vehicles, as well as more traditional sized vessels. There were also examples of towed fish combining traditionally separate systems such as sidescan sonar, multibeam echo sounder, and a magnetometer, separate from any AUV offerings.

The ingenuity of teams from around the globe to explore our Oceans is fascinating, and ensures that the future of our discipline is an exciting one !