Ocius Technology Ltd
"Ocius Technology Ltd (formerly Solar Sailor Holdings Ltd) is an Australian public unlisted company with Research and Development facilities at the University of NSW. In 1997, Solar Sailor won the Advanced Technology Boat Race in Canberra, beating the next solar boat by 5 laps of 6km (30km) using a new patented 'solar sail' - a simple device which harnesses both solar and wind energy in a seaworthy manner. Since then, the company has proven a solid track record of conceiving, funding, and delivering difficult, innovative, high-tech, award-winning projects on time and on budget.
The company has built multiple 'solarsailor' prototypes and six high-tech, award winning, hybrid electric, commercial passenger ferries to international classification requirements, which together have carried tens of thousands of passengers. Today, four solarsailor hybrid electric ferries operated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club operate 364 days of year, 14 hours a day, from Sai Kung to Kau Sai Chau half the fuel ferries.Following an enquiry from the USA in 2007 for a 'platform that could go to sea forever', the company began research into the development of unmanned solar/wind/wave powered ocean vessels or autonomous unmanned surface vessels. Initially, a 20-foot manned engineering development model (EDM) proved the 'speed of advance' in all conditions, adequate power, payload and persistence for a sustainable platform go to sea for months.
In 2014, Solar Sailor changed its name to OCIUS (Latin for 'fleet') to reflect an expansion of its patented technologies and a pivot in direction for the company. OCIUS built multiple scale models for tank and lake testing, culminating in the building of the first 10' prototype called 'Nemo' (Latin for 'no one' ie unmanned) which provided significant proof of concept of a solar, wind and wave powered USV carrying a significant payload.
Based on Nemo's development, in 2015, OCIUS was awarded a Capability Technology Demonstrator (CTD) from Defence Science and Technology Group. This proved a significant contract and OCIUS with our partner Thales developed an 18' prototype 'Bruce' for Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW), which was demonstrated to the NAVY in August 2017. In Sept 2018, Ocius was awarded its second defence contract under the Defence Innovation Hub to build an intelligent “Command and Control (C2) network” of intelligent persistent unmanned surface vessels.
In November 2019 'Bruce' participated Autonomous Warrior War games in Jervis Bay. Due to extreme weather, 'Bruce' was often the only USV operating. Ocius' intelligent C2 system was used to control another Navy WAMV catamaran and 2 DSTG UUVs. From May - June 2019, Ocius completed 6 week endurance and intelligent networking trials in a designated AMSA approved 'box' off the NSW Coast, successfully completing the DIH contract 3 months ahead of schedule.
Ocius is continuing its work with Thales, testing a new Thales thin line array deployed from the Bluebottle keel winch to significant and varying depths, which is being demonstrated at Pacific 2019 Expo at Darling Harbour 8-10 October."
