Seafloor Systems, Inc., founded in 1999 by Navy Veteran John Tamplin, is known for its innovative application of hydro acoustic sonar and unmanned marine surface vehicle technology for the survey industry. Seafloor developed the original Hydrolite-TM echosounder system in 2005 to meet the needs of the US Army Dive Teams. The Hydrolite was designed specifically to integrate to a customer’s existing GNSS survey kit and data collector, bringing hydrographic survey technology to the land surveyor. With interfaces to Trimble ACCESS and SCS9000, Leica VIVA and Captivate, Topcon MAGNET, and Carlson SurvCE, the Hydrolite covers most, if not all, of the most used survey data collection software packages in use today.
In 2010, Seafloor introduced the HyDrone remotely controlled Unmanned Surface Vehicle to the market. This allowed Seafloor to pioneer the current trend of using USVs for deployment of survey equipment in hazardous and inaccessible areas, including rivers, lakes, canals, mines, and harbours.
In 2014 Seafloor introduced the EchoBoat, a 1.8m mono-hull USV capable of deploying a multibeam echosounder remotely, complete with an inertial position and orientation system and sound velocity sensor. Integrated to the vehicle is a powerful industrial PC capable of collecting data from all survey sensors, cameras, and environmental systems as well as enabling the User to remotely connect to the vehicle over RF telemetry to monitor and control the data acquisition process.
In 2015, Seafloor introduced their industry disrupting AutoNav auto pilot module for the HyDrone and EchoBoat vehicles. The AutoNav product now makes it possible for the user to pre-plan a survey mission, upload it to the vehicle, and have the vehicle carry out the survey autonomously. Once the survey is completed, the vehicle automatically returns to the launch point for ease of recovery.
Seafloor continues to innovate in the survey grade echosounder and unmanned surface vehicle sectors. They introduced the first hot-swappable transducer well technology for the EchoBoat in 2017, which enables the user to quickly swap sonar modules without removing the vehicle from the water. Modules include a multibeam echosounder with integrated IMU, sidescan sonar, single beam echosounder, ADCP, and sub-bottom profiler. With proven technology, proven solutions, and unparalleled customer service, Seafloor is the go-to supplier for portable, rugged, and quality hydrographic survey instrumentation.
