An 8.5-m-tall autonomous data buoy featuring a unique set of onboard sensors will soon be heading out
to sea as part of Smart Sound Plymouth’s plan to create a world-leading proving ground for high-tech marine
innovation.

Alongside the buoy, Smart Sound’s futuristic fleet of ocean robots includes the recently named PML Pioneer, a
5-m AutoNaut USV propelled by wave motion and powered by 300-W solar panels.

PML has also procured four autonomous underwater robots from ecoSUB robotics, with funding from NERC.
Their sophisticated sensors are designed to provide crucial scientific data, and the flotilla of new-generation
subs, the largest in the U.K., is uniquely integrated using acoustic underwater communications. This
means the subs will be able to perform multi-vehicle synchronized surveys with accurate underwater
positioning and can communicate with the PML Pioneer.

‘Smart Sound Connect’, a £1.8 million investment to deliver a high-speed, above-water communications network across which the vessels and equipment will be able to communicate with each other. This advanced 5G private marine network will extend over 1 mi. south of Plymouth Sound and cover the port of Plymouth.

Smart Sound Plymouth is led by PML and delivered by a wide range of partners from the Future Autonomous
at Sea Technologies (FAST) Cluster, which has over 30 members across industry, academia and government.

Learn more at: www.pml.ac.uk.