SRI’s PEARL Drifters™ deliver real-time ocean insight
SRI’s low-cost ocean sensors supported rapid environmental assessment during one of the world’s largest maritime uncrewed systems exercises.
ff the coast of Portugal, NATO forces tested the latest maritime robotics and uncrewed systems through REPMUS (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping augmented by Maritime Uncrewed Systems). Led by the Portuguese Navy in collaboration with NATO, a key focus this year was Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA), providing a real-time understanding of ocean conditions that can turn into a strategic advantage.
In littoral waters, conditions change fast. Ground-based sensors and once-a-day satellite snapshots can’t always keep up, and sending crews out in small boats is costly and risky. To provide a clearer picture, the U.S. Office of Naval Research tasked the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to leverage PEARL drifters to provide the insights necessary for the mission objectives at REPMUS. The team deployed dozens of drifters over a broad area, some free-floating and some anchored, supplying critical, real-time data used to improve models.
PEARL Drifters™ are small, low-power, low-cost, and hard to detect, so forces can deploy many to confidently generate a high-resolution view of a broad area. The units are built from environmentally friendly materials to mitigate any potential effects on the environment. In addition to environmental insights, PEARL units are able to detect anomalous activity across air, surface, and underwater domains, adding intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) adding critical data for environmental sensing.
“This opportunity gives us a good basis of evidence for further test and evaluation, and even operational deployment, going forward.”
— Brien Buckman, SRI Commercialization
“Stakeholders were very happy with the performance and results during this important exercise,” said Brien Buckman, who supports commercialization at SRI. “This opportunity gives us a good basis of evidence for further test and evaluation, and even operational deployment, going forward.”
PEARL grew out of SRI’s work on DARPA’s Ocean of Things program and can be customized to customer needs at the time of manufacture. SRI is currently expanding its work with strategic partners, including international organizations who are using and leveraging the drifters.
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