North Sea Systems Secure Funding for DataFish®

18 September 2013: North Sea Systems, based in Poole Dorset, have secured a £100,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to develop their innovative marine survey device called the DataFish®.

tbsThe DataFish® is a High Flow Survey System, designed to collect tidal data. The design of the DataFish® is based on a low drag buoy, the hull of which is made from glass reinforced plastic. It has been designed to operate in 10 knot flows and waves with a significant wave height of 9m.

Due to a growing demand from the marine energy industry to be able to measure their impact on the marine environment, North Sea Systems are working on a project to develop the DataFish® so that it has both top and bottom mounted sensors.

The new design incorporates an electrical umbilical between the buoy and the anchor. This umbilical transfers power from the buoy to the sensors, and data from the sensors to the buoy. All data continues to be transferred in real time.

mid-mountedLost equipment, failed deployments & poor quality data in highly energetic environments have plagued tidal turbine & wave energy developers in the marine energy industry in recent times. There is a clear need for a device which alleviates the huge potential delays and costs incurred when survey equipment is retrieved months later & data is missing or corrupt.

The grant from the TSB will now allow North Sea Systems to develop the Datafish® so as to offer the marine energy industry the very first system that can be safely and accurately deployed, recovered and reliably operated.

Dave Rigg, Director of North Sea Systems, commented “this grant is fantastic news for North Sea Systems, as it ensures we can really push forward with the development of the DataFish®. Along with our partners at the Sustainable Energy Research Group at Southampton University, we are committed to ensuring the DataFish® becomes the data survey system of choice for the marine energy industry”.