A joint proposal submitted by dotOcean and its sister company Marlinks on the topic of ‘persistent surveillance above and under water’ has been chosen to participate in NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), following the selection of 44 projects out of 1300 applications.
This first DIANA cohort shows NATO’s commitment to harnessing innovation for defence and dual-use applications. The selected initiatives will receive funding and a fast-track to adapt the company’s proposed solution for both defence and security needs.
“dotOcean is eager to engage with NATO in the development and deployment of an integrated sensor network incorporating various sensor types, along with data fusion software. This technology is designed to offer an advanced situational awareness platform capable of identifying both surface and sub-surface threats. We are enthusiastic about the potential of this innovation to protect critical maritime assets such as offshore wind farm export cables, gas pipelines, and telecommunication cables.” says Koen Geirnaert, CEO of dotOcean
Through the integration of diverse above-water observation tools such as radar, cameras, and infrared technology installed on offshore infrastructure, along with a sub-surface fiber sensor network utilizing Distributed Acoustic Sensing technology, the system is designed for real-time monitoring of movements.
Roel Vanthillo, CEO Marlinks, states: “The selection of dotOcean and Marlinks’ proposal by DIANA shows the significance of NATO acknowledging our collective experience in sea monitoring, particularly in Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and advanced data analytics. As a pioneer in cable integrity monitoring, we can only applaud NATO’s recognition of our expertise in this crucial domain.”
