Success storie - AutoNaut - Making the most of wave power | Technology Strategy Board

Tuesday 01 Jul 2014 @ 13:15
Technology Strategy Board

Success storie - AutoNaut - Making the most of wave power

For 30 years management consultant Mike Poole had an unusual hobby: finding a way to use the power of the waves to propel boats rather than stop them. He even built a 20-metre wave tank at the bottom of his garden to test how his designs performed in a variety of conditions.

He thought a wave-powered boat equipped with sensors, that didn't need fuel and therefore could run almost indefinitely, could be a cost-effective and efficient way to gather data from the oceans.

Retired Royal Navy commodore David Maclean agreed and soon after they met in 2011 they teamed up to build a prototype, funding the project out of their own pockets.

They founded MOST (Autonomous Vessels) Ltd in 2012 and with some help from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Technology Strategy Board they saw their idea come to life as the AutoNaut: a 3.5 metre unmanned surface vessel designed to gather oceanographic data over long periods.

Success at sea and on land

Just over a year later the AutoNaut has successfully completed trials with the NOC, is going into production and already has two confirmed orders.

Its success has seen MOST (AV), which is based in Chichester and Devon, grow from just the two founders - now its two directors - to five full-time and five part-time staff. They expect to take on three or four more people as production begins.

"We hope to build six to eight boats by the middle of 2015. We absolutely wouldn't have been able to do it without the NOC and the Technology Strategy Board," said David Maclean.

Channel website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk

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