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Quest Center company partners with UMass
 “Small,
smart and powerful,” are a few of the adjectives UMass
Dartmouth Marine Science Professor Louis Goodman uses to
describe the new device he is building to gather data
from the ocean.
Goodman, recipient of a $40,000 Massachusetts Technology
Transfer Center grant, is collaborating with Brooke
Ocean Technology USA on the one-year project. They are
designing a prototype of the H-PUP (Hybrid Programmable
Underwater Profiler) with an eye towards its
commercialization.
“We view the H-PUP as a revolutionary new and relatively
low cost way of conducting marine measurements,” said
Goodman, director of the School for Marine Science and
Technology’s Marine Turbulence Laboratory. The tool
combines the capabilities of an Autonomous Underwater
Vehicle (AUV), a torpedo-like robot, with a vertical
profiler, a more conventional means of gathering
underwater measurements.
What makes the H-PUP unique, Goodman said, is that
unlike other profilers, it can operate both horizontally
and vertically while carrying acoustic, video and
environmental sensors. The vehicle also eliminates the
need for a line or tether to be dropped to collect data.
The partners are excited about the potential global
market for small programmable profilers and AUVs. Roger
Race, general manager of Brooke Ocean Technology USA,
located at the Quest Center business incubator in New
Bedford, cited a Douglass-Westwood study showing
possible market growth into the billion dollar range.
“We fully intend to build and market this new hybrid
vehicle to the global market. As our company grows, we
hope to be able to continue to create more new jobs in
New Bedford,” Race said.
The U.S. and foreign military and civilian agencies,
homeland security, energy and environmental industries
and research institutes comprise the likely principal
customers.
The parties involved laud the collaboration between
SMAST and BOT USA.
“It’s a wonderful combination of superb engineers and a
`can do’ company like Brooke Ocean Technology,” Goodman
said. “We each bring our strengths in science and
engineering to make a marriage of different
organizations that works.”
“We could not ask for a better partnership,” said Race,
who noted that the two groups previously received a
$70,000 grant from the Navy to design and build launch
and recovery systems for AUVs.
Brooke Ocean Technology USA Inc. is located on Purchase
Street in the Quest Center, a technology incubator whose
mission is to support the development and growth of
technology focused small business. The Center’s
“high-support” environment assists new early stage
companies with growth and job-generation potential.
House in a refurbished industrial building, the Quest
Center represents a collaboration between the city of
New Bedford, New Bedford Economic Development Council
and UMass Dartmouth.
For further information visit www.brooke-oceanusa.com
February 10, 2008 |
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