Seatrec + Naval Postgraduate School Achieve Historic First by Collecting Acoustic Data in Real-Time with Underwater Drones
Hydrophone-equipped underwater drones powered by the ocean’s temperature differences deployed off the coast of Hawaii to provide persistent monitoring of natural and man-made soundscape
VISTA, Calif. – WEBWIRE – Wednesday, January 29, 2025. Seatrec and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) today announced the first-ever collection of acoustic data in real-time by underwater drones, also known as autonomous profiling floats, completely powered by the energy harvested from the temperature differences in the ocean. The data capture was made off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, by the Persistent Smart Acoustic Profiler (PSAP) Voyager. Seatrec designed and built the first PSAP Voyager with the unprecedented ability to create its own electricity to power the robust onboard computing capabilities needed to process the large data recorded by a passive acoustic hydrophone used to detect sounds underwater.
The new PSAP Voyager’s ability to generate power leapfrogs previous generations of autonomous profiling floats that are limited by battery power and enables acoustic data to be collected in real-time anywhere in the world’s oceans nearly indefinitely.
“Sound is used to “see” underwater and is vital to understanding the ocean and monitoring the movement of natural and man-made objects,” explains Yi Chao, Ph.D., Seatrec’s CEO and Founder. “Previously hydrophones required power from expensive underwater cables from shore or ships but our PSAP Voyager untethers hydrophones and provides nearly unlimited persistent monitoring of the ocean in an extremely economical way.”
Traditional hydrophones are positioned at depth, often within the SOFAR (SOund Fixing And Ranging) channel, where the sound speed is minimal. Sound is trapped within this SOFAR channel by refraction and can travel over great distances. Hydrophones can be lowered into the SOFAR channel from a ship, which is expensive to operate – often starting at $50,000 per day. They can also be placed on the seafloor and powered by fiber optic cables connected to a shore station on land, but there are only a handful of places with this infrastructure.
Naval forces have an inherent operational reason to be quiet at sea, and the research into ocean noise provides additional insight for the Navy and Marine Corps in planning for future underway operations.
“Passive acoustic listening has many operational and research applications in the Navy,” says John Joseph, the principal investigator and faculty associate for research at the Naval Postgraduate School. “The autonomy and long endurance of Seatrec’s PSAP Voyager provides an unprecedented opportunity to collect acoustic data in real-time for very long periods in remote areas without the expense and logistical tail of ship support.”
Seatrec counts the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research among its early backers and in 2022 launched a precursor to the PSAP – Voyager project in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School to integrate hydrophones into autonomous, ocean-going robots. The research and development effort was supported by the Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER) at NPS, which is funded by the Office of Naval Research to provide a collaborative environment for the advancement of educational and research endeavors across the Navy and Marine Corps.
In 2023, Seatrec was selected for the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) Propel Hawai’i Accelerator. The program is a partnership between the NSIN and Decisive Point in collaboration with the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet—the world’s largest fleet command encompassing 100 million square miles. Seatrec was selected from a competitive field of over 200 early-stage companies to join an elite cohort of enterprises developing cutting-edge technologies to help the modernization needs of the US Navy and the broader DoD community.
About Seatrec
Seatrec designs and manufactures energy harvesting systems that generate electricity from naturally occurring temperature differences in ocean waters. This renewable energy can be used to power deep water oceanographic research equipment such as floats, gliders, and autonomous underwater vehicles, resulting in the most scalable, cost-effective deep ocean data collection possible. The company is headquartered in Vista, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
About the Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School is a defense-focused graduate university offering master’s and doctoral degrees in fields of study core to Naval-unique needs, the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD civilians and international partners. For information, visit: nps.edu.
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