Marine

San Francisco-based aquatic drone-maker Saildrone has returned with a bigger and better version of its unmanned vehicle designed to explore the seas, the newly introduced 72-ft (22-m) Saildrone Surveyor.

Italian yacht design firm Lazzarini has unveiled designs for a solar-powered amphibious “crabmaran” that the studio says will be the first in the world. Dubbed Pagurus, the striking 82-ft catamaran merges solar technology and innovative design.

If a boat full of people is zipping across the water, it's possible that one of them could fall overboard without anyone noticing ... at least, not right away. The 1st Mate Marine Safety and Security system is designed to keep that from happening.

While ocean-based fish farms do help take pressure off of wild stocks, they have eco-unfriendly drawbacks of their own. A new underwater robot is being designed to address that situation, by autonomously inspecting the fish and their pens.

No boat catches the eye quite as quickly as a natural-wood boat. Or so we thought. The Castagnola Heritage 9.9 marries its natural wood aesthetic with a glossy black carbon fiber hull shell ... and it catches the eye just as quickly as wood alone.

Although AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) excel at gathering marine data without human intervention, they're still limited by battery life. Texas startup Terradepth has set out to address that problem, with a novel tag-team system.

GPS doesn't work underwater, which means that keeping track of a submersible's whereabouts can be difficult. A new ROV (remotely operated vehicle) still manages to show up on Google Maps, however – plus it has a cool rotating head.

Triton has turned its attention back to the luxury sector with a new six-person sub designed to launch from the garage of your mega-yacht. Its giant 2.5-m diameter spherical acrylic pressure hull is the biggest ever, giving panoramic views for six.

While consumer-oriented underwater drones are becoming increasingly popular, better-equipped ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) are still the weapon of choice for industrial applications. One of the latest – and coolest-looking – is the SRV-8.

A Stanford team has demonstrated a unique system that can generate a strong sonar wave, and read and interpret the reflected signals, from an airborne platform. This raises the possibility of sonar-enabled drones that could finally map the sea floor.

Two heavyweights in high-performance battery tech are teaming to create the world's first lithium-sulfur battery-powered luxury boat. Williams Advanced Engineering and Oxis Energy will collaborate to get the cutting edge, 400-kWh e-boat out on the water.

If you should become separated from your sailboat, kayak or other watercraft out on the open sea, staying afloat isn't the only challenge – you also have to be seen by your rescuers. That's where the wearable, inflatable SeeArch is made to come in.