EvoLogics is a marine technology high-tech enterprise with headquarters in Berlin, Germany, and a US sales office in Yorktown, Virginia. The company was founded in 2000 with a strong group of scientists and R&D experts, aimed to develop innovative technologies for the maritime and offshore industries. EvoLogics creates high-end underwater robotics, acoustic communication and positioning networks and sensor systems. These combine state-of-the-art engineering with bionic concepts.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Research and innovation are the cornerstones of EvoLogics, and an underwater “Internet of Things” that enables intelligent cooperation between various vehicles and sensors is the main vector of EvoLogics development strategy.
E.E: The company’s activities can be rounded up into three main areas.
Number one is underwater data and positioning networks. Because radio transmissions do not work underwater, EvoLogics uses acoustic underwater communication technologies to bring the data networking functionality of WiFi and the positioning abilities of GNSS into the subsea environment. Acoustic data transmission and positioning systems form the IT backbone for complex underwater missions.
Building on the data and positioning foundation is robotics, another major area of EvoLogics product development. The company designs and manufactures autonomous underwater and surface robots intended for various missions. These range from collecting data, mapping the environment and performing object searches to complex swarm operations, such as maintenance of deep-sea installations.
Sensor technologies are the third pillar of the company’s solutions for underwater applications. EvoLogics builds sonar systems and other multifunctional sensors that create an image of the environment, detect objects or avoid collisions with AI-based software systems for complex mission scenarios.
E.E: What’s the news about new products/services?
EvoLogics’ major news in 2024 is the launch of a new version of the Quadroin, a penguin-shaped underwater robot for underwater surveys. The bionic design of the autonomous underwater vehicle is inspired by nature and stems from studies of highly efficient penguin locomotion. The Quadroin can perform side-scan and camera imaging missions, collect data on water and current parameters, and sense metallic objects. An onboard edge computing platform performs real-time object recognition while underwater. The torpedo-fast Quadroin can execute various types of surveys in a self-coordinating swarm formation, and with real-time data transfers and live feedback can interact with operators on the surface, and with divers and other EvoLogics subsea vehicles underwater.
Another highlight of 2024 is the launch of the Diver Navigation system. It simplifies complex underwater tasks involving multiple team members, like search and rescue, salvage, recovery, or cleanup operations. The system employs compact, battery-powered acoustic modems as diver trackers, positioned on the divers’ backs for unobstructed signal transmission. Divers use a wrist tablet that displays the map with all diver positions and can use a chat tool very similar to smartphone texting. Map waypoints can be added before or during the mission to coordinate the mission and mark the discovered objects in real-time.
E.E: What are the ranges of products/services?
EvoLogics offers a wide range of underwater acoustic modems and positioning systems with multiple configuration options that allow finding the best-fit solution for various subsea applications.
The robotic product range features the Sonobot 5 uncrewed surface vehicle, an established platform for sonar surveys, search and monitoring in harbors and inland waters. Underwater, the Quadroin and Poggy vehicles cater to various subsea survey needs. All vehicles are fully integrated with the onboard sensor equipment and come with IT functionality and software suites for planning and executing missions.
In addition, EvoLogics has begun to expand into the service sector. Maintaining an operating underwater sensor network is one of the key growth areas that the company foresees for the upcoming years.
E.E: What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
The company is export-heavy: from its very beginning, EvoLogics has been active in the global marine technologies market, now counting over 600 customers in 65 different countries worldwide.
Geo-politics is affecting global business, and the marine technologies market is not an exception – tensions make economic waves. EvoLogics is very concerned about the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, the South Chinese Sea disputes, and the conflicts that arise in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
When talking about trends, maritime industries are quite special because a lot of the projects are fairly long-term investments. For example, a new subsea installation for oil and gas exploration is in the planning phase for 6 to 15 years, then takes years to construct, and then is operated for another 10 to 15 years.
The significant investments, scale, and continuity of exploration projects make the maritime market somewhat independent of relatively short-term disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain, or economic fluctuations. The planning horizon of maritime exploration activities is far longer to react to any individual crisis swiftly. This market is also very conservative which makes it difficult for new startups to enter the inner circle of trust of major infrastructure projects.
On the other hand, faster-paced marine technology brands work on novel communication technologies, artificial intelligence and sensor networks, but have a very short innovation life cycle.
Therefore, EvoLogics needs to keep up with the rapid pace of modern high-tech standards, while building up a brand name as a reliable partner with a long-standing reputation.
E.E: What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
EvoLogics invests significant resources in constant innovation for underwater data and positioning networks.
The highly dynamic physical nature of the underwater environment imposes a lot of limitations on wireless acoustic communication. Underwater, the data transfer rate is about 5-15 kbit per second which is extremely low. EvoLogics data systems are carefully designed for operations in harsh underwater environments and enhanced with special algorithms for signal processing and data management.
Another highlight is artificial intelligence for underwater vehicles, used for object recognition, collision avoidance, image segmentation, artificial mission planning and other complex underwater tasks. To perform edge computing for the successful completion of missions is one of the major challenges in an environment, where communication and cloud computing resources are so limited.
Swarm operations of 10+ subsea vehicles are another innovation worth mentioning. The challenge is to coordinate the robots in real-time, reacting to dynamic underwater situations. It takes a high amount of programming and intelligence to embed into every single unit.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2024?
The mind of EvoLogics is already in 2026. For 2024, EvoLogics is fully booked with orders. Until December, the company has tight delivery schedules and an extensive production plan.
Nevertheless, in 2024 the company sets new pathways to kick off further development on key technology upgrades for 2025/26. These include new subsea vehicle projects, cooperations with major technology partners, further work on distributed underwater sensor networks, software integration into situational awareness systems as well as new features for underwater data and positioning networks.