Underwater Vehicles

Ralf Bachmayer - Memorial University, Faculty of Engineering

Dr. Bachmayer is an emerging leader in the area of ocean technology with his innovative work using autonomous underwater gliders. His key interests focus on overcoming constraints on conventional gliders so they can be used in innovative scenarios such as missions under sea ice. He plays a major role on several national and international ocean related committees including holding the seat for the Canada Research Chair in Ocean Technology.

Dwight Howse - Marine Institute

Holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He is the Head of the School of Ocean Technology at the Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland. There, he is responsible for the establishment and growth of academic programs and applied research and development projects focused on technologies that make ocean activity safe, efficient, profitable, and environmentally sustainable. He spends his free time working with underwater robotics teams in the St. John's area.

Bill Kirkwood - Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Bill graduated from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1978 with his BSME and received an MSCIS in 2000 from the University of Phoenix. His predominant focus has been in the area of electromechanical design. Prior to joining MBARI he was a group leader at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) in the Advanced Systems Division working on a variety of applied design projects for communications, satellites, and active optics for high-energy laser systems as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Bill joined MBARI in 1991 as the lead mechanical designer and project manager a several technology efforts including the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Tiburon and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Dorado. A number of variants of the Dorado system have been constructed, the most advanced being the Mapping AUV. Bill moved to Northern California in 1987 when he joined the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC). He became a supervisor in the Advanced Systems group doing a variety of applied design projects for communications, satellites, and active optics for high-energy laser systems (you might have known it as SDI). Bill began doing sub-sea equipment designs at Lockheed which eventually fostered contacts with MBARI.

Neil Riggs - MarPort

Neil Riggs has over 30 years of experience in research and development, product development and operations in technology companies. His areas of activity have included R&D related to problems caused by sea ice and icebergs, subsea geotechnical sampling systems, electronic mapping and charting, sonar measurement and telemetry methods and, most recently, unmanned underwater vehicles. Generally, his professional career has been devoted to development of advanced technology solutions for ocean monitoring, sensing and communication systems.

Neil is a member of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists - Newfoundland and Labrador, a Director of Oceans Advance, the ocean technology cluster in Newfoundland and Labrador and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Oceanic Engineering Society of IEEE. He is employed by Canada's largest sonar company, Marport Canada Inc. as Vice President of R&D and Program Manager, Autonomous Vehicles.

Darryl Rundquist - Oceaneering

Oceaneering is a global oilfield provider of engineered services and products primarily to the offshore oil and gas industry, with a focus on deepwater applications. Through the use of its applied technology expertise, Oceaneering also serves the defense and aerospace industries. Darryl is the senior ROV Operations manager.

Richard Vandervoort - Marine Institute

A graduate of the Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics at the University of Windsor Ontario in 1981 and with more than 20 years experience piloting ROVs, Richard Vandervoort is the lead instructor for the new Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Program at the Marine Institute (MI). His passion for ROV's shines through in his comments about the program he currently chairs and instructs for: "We want to train our students as super pilot technologists," he continues to state "The demand for trained ROV pilot technicians, projected to grow by over 50 per cent in the next five years, is a result of burgeoning deep-ocean exploration. Offshore oil and gas exploration is a critical driver of ROV demand as accessible, shallow coastal reserves are exhausted and there is a need to explore deeper waters. ROV pilots are also needed for oceanographic research, scientific surveys, subsea structure maintenance, and salvage operations".

This unique 40-week program that Richard chairs is the only one of its kind offered at a post-secondary institute (The Marine Institute) accepted its first students in January 2007. Richard notes that the industry is hungry for new graduates and continues to come knocking each semester for more.

Chris Williams - Institute for Ocean Technology

Dr. Christopher Williams is a Senior Research Engineer with the National Research Council Canada (NRC) at the Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT), in St. John's, Newfoundland.

His research focuses on the measurement and prediction of the hydrodynamic loads on, and performance of, underwater vehicles, such as towed acoustic detectors, submarines, remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), including ocean gliders. Related activities use analytical and numerical methods, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods and simulations to predict and evaluate the behaviour of such vehicles. Much of this research includes experiments with physical scale models in the 200 metre-long towing tank and the 75x32 metre manoeuvring basin at the NRC-IOT. A current industry collaboration involves the design and testing of a new AUV with hovering capability; a patent application has been made for the novel propulsion and manoeuvring system.

As an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University he developed and taught both the undergraduate and graduate courses "Design of Underwater Vehicles". He also supervises work-term and graduate students who are involved in underwater vehicle projects. One result was a university and industry collaborative project which included the design and testing of the AUV "C-SCOUT" which is a general-purpose testbed vehicle for research in control system software, obstacle-detection sonars, obstacle-avoidance software, acoustic tracking, and, the design of advanced propulsion systems.