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Woods Hole PO Box 164 whmsi @ whmsi.com |
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WHMSI is an oceanographic engineering service company. We specialize in the development and deployment of unmanned, teleoperated underwater vehicles and associated equipment. WHMSI was founded in 1998 by its Chief Engineer, Jim Newman.
Our primary client for our first decade in business was Dr. Robert Ballard's Institute for Exploration. We developed a suite of underwater vehicles for search and investigation, particularly in support of archaeology. ARGUS is a towsled that supports a high definition video camera, and HMI lighting. ARGUS can operate independently or as a partner for an ROV. We built a small Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), Little Hercules (shown below) in early 2000, with a 4000 meter depth rating and capable of carrying a large high definition camera. We operated these first two vehicles on IFE expeditions to the Black Sea (September 2000) and Pearl Harbor (November 2000).
During 2001 we developed and fielded a sidescan sonar survey system, ECHO. We built and fielded a shallow water ROV, Orpheus, to provide interactive inter-coastal video experiences from NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries.
In 2003 we completed a larger ROV, HERCULES (shown above), which we used with IFE during the summer of 2003 for archaeological work on ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. We have supported a number of expeditions in the subsequent years on a variety of support ships, including expeditions to investigate geology and biology in the Atlantic and a 2005 survey of the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
During 2009-2010 we were deeply involved in
development of a new ship to support these systems, the Exploration Vessel
NAUTILUS, for Dr. Ballard's Ocean
Exploration Trust.
Since 2010 we have been involved in a variety of projects for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the University of Rhode Island, Hydroid , and NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration.
Jim Newman's personal web page
Links to related Organizations:
Institute for
Exploration
University of Rhode Island GSO
The Marine Technology Society
NOAA/Office
of Ocean Exploration
URI Ocean Engineering
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
Underwater Vehicle Links:
MBARI (home of
Ventana and Tiburon)
WHOI Deep
Submergence Lab (home of JASON, NEREUS and SENTRY)
WHOI
Oceanographic Systems Lab (home of REMUS)
Some North American commercial builders of
underwater vehicles:
Benthos
Deep
Sea Systems International
International
Submarine Engineering (ISE)
Bluefin
Robotics
Hydroid
Webb Research Corp
Links to local stuff:
Marine and
Oceanographic Technology Network (MOTN)
Cape Cod
Technology Council
Woods
Hole Business Association
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