Hypercube has been awarded funding through Scottish Enterprise’s CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call to investigate the development of an edge-based remote Marine Mammal Observation (MMO) system designed to support the next generation of offshore wind survey and operations.
The project explores how advanced sensing, edge computing, and AI-assisted analysis enables reliable marine mammal detection while supporting lean-crewed, remote, and autonomous offshore vessels increasingly used across the offshore wind sector.
Offshore wind development and marine survey operations are rapidly evolving to reduce costs, emissions, and operational risk. However, current MMO practices remain heavily dependent on manual, vessel-based visual observation, creating operational constraints and limiting the scalability of emerging offshore operations.
Hypercube’s feasibility study focuses on several key technical challenges, including reliable detection of marine mammals within a 500-metre mitigation zone, integrating visual and acoustic detection methods to improve confidence and reduce false positives, and designing an architecture robust enough for continuous offshore use.
The project aligns with the CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation programme’s focus on next-generation installation, operations and maintenance and smart environmental services, supporting the development of technologies that reduce costs while maintaining strong environmental protections.
The project is being developed alongside industry partner Ocean Infinity, to ensure real-world feasibility is tested during development. Findings from the study defines the pathway from prototype to production, supporting innovation in Scotland’s offshore wind sector.