The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sees the Singapore and French companies working together to integrate and evaluate ELWAVE’s commercial-off-the-shelf TETRAPULSE sensor (active electrical impedance) into A.IKANBILIS, BeeX’s Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HAUV). This integration is designed to provide naval forces, offshore industry and marine sciences, with innovative subsea detection and inspection capabilities.
The signature ceremony took place September 20th, 2024.
BeeX designs, manufactures and operates Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. As a service provider, BeeX integrates the latest innovation in sensor technology to maximize inspection productivity and value to asset owners.
ELWAVE designs, manufactures and sales compact subsea sensors based on the patented biomimicry technology CEDAR (Controlled Electric Detection And Ranging). It replicates the “active electro-location” perception mode used by some tropical fishes living in turbid and cluttered waters in Africa and South America. In this complex environment, vision and the acoustic perception are inefficient. Natural evolution has led these fish to develop this dedicated perception mode. By perceiving the variations in the electric field that they generate, they obtain an “electric image” of their environment that allows them to avoid obstacles, evade predators and catch prey. CEDAR® technology is embedded into the compact TETRAPULSE sensor for the detection and characterization (size, shape, electric nature) of any metallic or non-metallic objects (mines, UXO, pipelines, cables) lying on the seabed or buried in the sediment.
Today’s announcement builds on the alliance of the subsea robotics and sensing innovators to ease the operations in complex subsea environments. BeeX’s computational power available at the vehicle enables parallel processing of multiple sensors, reducing processing load on human operators, enabling them to make decisions faster, with more data. Today, BeeX’s A.IKANBILIS HAUV is the most compact vehicle in the world to commercially achieve such outcomes. BeeX ensures that our platforms, and sensors from the global supply chain are seamlessly integrated, so that we can achieve one-to-many, with 10X reduction in complexity.
Grace Chia, CEO of BeeX comments: “SMEs like us collaborating on the critically important topic of defense is evidence that the Strategic Partnership between our countries is deep and far-reaching. BeeX’s vision is to transform underwater capabilities at scale, and like-minded international partners are crucial. Our rigorous and early verification of innovative sensors such as TETRAPULSE from Elwave demonstrates our commitment, and the support we receive to realise that vision. We are excited to tap on the agility of our companies, to accelerate the delivery of innovation to defense users globally.”
Pierre TUFFIGO, CEO of ELWAVE comments: “The defence cooperation between Singapore and France has a long and successful history and we are proud to be part of it. ELWAVE is proud to collaborate with great innovators like BeeX. The combination of our patented electric-field CEDAR sensor and the BeeX’s HAUV brings to the market high-value solution for the naval mine warfare and the protection of critical underwater infrastructure”.
