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Empowering deep-sea exploration
As deep-sea exploration accelerates around the world – with nations, institutes and companies seeking to unlock the mysteries of this still largely unexplored environment – the need for cutting-edge technologies that make it possible to launch exploration missions has become critical.
Leveraging over forty years of experience in ocean exploration, Exail, as a global leader in the fields of robotics and maritime autonomy, masters all the technological bricks needed for deep water exploration.
Exail, that has end-to-end control over the entire value chain, from components and sensors, through to complete drone systems, offers:
- Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) capable of operating in deep water.
- Inertial navigation systems, as well as subsea acoustic positioning systems allowing the tracking of underwater drones and the communication between the surface and the underwater world down to 6,000m.
- Subsea imagery solutions for high-resolution mapping of the ocean depths.
- All software suites necessary for conducting exploration missions, drone control and mission planning, through to the acquisition, post-processing and interpretation of the acquired data.
Thanks to this high level of expertise, Exail today positions itself as a global player capable of enabling access to ocean depths down to 6000 m.
Exail maritime drones and sensors have already been widely adopted by various manufacturers, scientific organisations and government institutions around the world and are deployed on multiple missions today. By way of example, Exail has developed and manufactured, for the French Research Institute for Ocean Science (Ifremer), two emblematic underwater vehicles used by the Flotte Océanographique Française (French oceanographic fleet), the Victor 6000m ROV (in 1998), and more recently the Ulyx AUV (delivered end 2020), an underwater drone capable of diving down to 6000 m for totally autonomous missions lasting more than 48 hours and already deployed at depths of 4500 m.
The Ulyx drone is incidentally equipped with underwater imaging solutions developed by Exail for mapping the ocean depths and studying sediment layers with precision. Its precise navigation and positioning in great depths are also performed by inertial navigation systems and subsea acoustic positioning systems from Exail.
Lately Exail has been selected to supply a new AUV, the A6K-M, capable of operating at depths of up to 6,000 meters to the French Navy. This new underwater drone based on the architecture of Ulyx, is a fine example of dual-use technology that will be adapted to meet the specific needs of the French Navy. It will carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions on the seabed, as well as on sensitive underwater infrastructures such as submarine cables.
The high potential of the company’s other deep water exploration solutions has also already been identified by the French government which has been testing them as part of several programmes. The DriX USV, able to map the ocean depths and position and exchange information with one or more AUVs simultaneously from the surface, to then transmit it to a control station on the shore or a vessel – and that has already been deployed by US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Ifremer, as well as TotalEnergies, Ocean Infinity to name a few – has also been tested by the Shom (Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service) and the French Navy as part of armament programme within the “Future Hydrographic and Oceanographic Capacity” (CHOF).
Drawing from these experiences and its unique know-how in the development and deployment of maritime drones and sensors, Exail, global leader in robotics, instrumentation, and services for marine and underwater applications, positions itself as a pioneering manufacturer that will expand current capabilities and make underwater exploration possible, from the coastline to the ocean depths down to 6000 m.
