Bluefin Robotics and ING Engineering announce AUV Partnership for Canadian Market

Bluefin Robotics Corporation a world leader in the design and manufacture of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) is pleased to announce an exclusive Canadian distribution agreement with ING Engineering Inc. of Ottawa.

Under the agreement, ING Engineering will sell and provide selected after-sales service support on the full range of Bluefin Robotics' AUVs. The agreement highlights the emergence of AUVs as cost effective and capable tools for use in underwater activities ranging from gathering bathymetric data, to assisting in offshore oil exploration, to port and ship security, to recovery operations, to route survey, and to littoral intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance activities.

Spun off in 1997 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AUV Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bluefin Robotics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Battelle. Bluefin's track record of developing and fielding AUVs has led to dramatic gains in capability, performance, and applicability allowing for a rapid expansion of military, national security, and commercial applications of the technology.

"We are pleased to be working with ING Engineering to expand the Bluefin AUV user group in Canada," said David Kelly, President of Bluefin Robotics.

Ian Glenn, Chairman and CEO of ING Engineering, stated that "the addition of Bluefin's AUVs enables ING Engineering to provide both sub-surface as well as aerial ISR solutions - answering Government of Canada search, surveillance, and reconnaissance requirements both domestically and overseas. These capabilities are critically important in the context of global warming and Canadian Arctic sovereignty.

Equally important, however, is the fact that the capabilities of Bluefin AUVs are now available to Canadian academia and off-shore extractive industries through a Canadian company."