Boaty McBoatface an autosub long-range autonomous vehicle

The day we met Boaty McBoatface

This week Marie and Nic from Triangle Berth Brokers attended the Superyacht UK Christmas networking event.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton hosted the event. An amazing facility which houses the Marine Robotics Innovation Centre.

After a welcome drink, mince pie and a little networking. We enjoyed a presentation by Dr Mike Claire about Plastic Pollution.

We were then taken on a tour of the facility which was eye-opening. Our first stop was to meet Boaty McBoatface. Boaty is one of the UK’s autosub long-range autonomous vehicle. He can travel to depths of over 4,000 metres to collect data through its series of onboard sensors.

Boaty McBoatface named following an online poll in 2016. Where the public voted to name a new research vessel. Although the name won, it was decided to call the vessel Sir David Attenborough. Boaty was then used for one of the onboard submersibles instead.

Autonomous underwater vehicles

Whilst at the NOC we also got to see a range of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). If you look at the pink AUV you’ll see where a shark tried to take a bite.

British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility

The final part of our tour was into the freezers at the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF). Here we saw the UK’s national marine sediment repository. With core samples taken from seabeds around the World from the 1970s to today.

It was fascinating to be able to see and touch the core samples. We discovered how the samples showed us major geological events. We could see Tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in the core samples. The collection of the core can show us over time how weather events are cyclical. They can also be useful in showing the effects of global temperature changes on Earth.