Sofar Ocean Technologies, the leading manufacturer of ocean drones and sensors, launches Strider, an autonomous surface vehicle designed to make ocean data collection more accessible.
Sofar Strider is designed for operations in coastal, near-shore and inland waters. It combines autonomous navigation, solar power, and a modular design to enable it to operate autonomously or remote-controlled through the internet, while integrating with a wide range of sensors. In addition to supporting customizable payloads, Strider collects real-time video from above and below the waterline.
“Strider is a revolutionary development in distributed autonomous ocean vehicles,” said Tim Janssen, Sofar Co-Founder and CEO. “Our goal is to enable a rapid increase in data density in critical regions of our global ocean and along our coastlines. Strider is an important step toward that goal. It combines a unique focus on autonomy, modularity, and scalability that provides unprecedented flexibility, affordability and ease-of-use to marine data collection. “
Strider will be available for “mission days”, where a Sofar technician will manage deployment and data collection for customer-defined needs, beginning in December. Pricing for mission days starts at $500 per day, with a minimum of one day of operation.
Strider will also be available for pre-order purchase at a price of $4,500 with delivery scheduled for Summer 2020
