Space Applications Services is an independent Belgian company founded in 1987. Their headquarters are located in Zaventem, but they also have offices in the Netherlands, employees at the European Astronaut Training Center (EAC) in Germany and a subsidiary in Houston, USA. They develop technology, integrate systems and provide technologically-enabled services – particularly for demanding and hostile environments, such as with manned spaceflights. SPACEAPPS is the coordinator of DexROV, and is responsible for the implementation of the DexROV onshore control center, human machine interfaces and satellite communication link.
The Compagnie Maritime D’Expertise (COMEX) is a specialist in engineering solutions for extreme environments and diving operations. Operating from Marseille, France, the company was founded in 1961; since then, it has remained a pioneer for offshore operations and engineering for the oil and gas industry, maritime renewables, science and subsea mining. COMEX facilities include DP vessels, ROV and hyper/hypobaric testing facilities. As an end-user, COMEX also provides the demonstration infrastructures (vessel and ROV) to be used during sea trials.
Located in Bremen, Germany, Jacobs University is a private research university modelled on the Anglo-saxon system. Founded in 1999, it is home to 1500 students from over 100 nations. Robotics research as well as teaching and learning activities have been conducted at Jacobs since 2001. They focus on enabling intelligent autonomous operations for robots in unstructured environments. Jacobs University is responsible for the perception and modeling of the underwater environment relying on ROV-equipped sensors.
Located in Italy, the Interuniversity Center of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (ISME) was founded in 1999. Current members are the universities of Genova, Pisa, Salento, Politecnica delle Marche, Cassino and Southern Lazio, and Firenze. ISME are expert researchers in the fields of: marine robotics and underwater manipulators; underwater acoustics including sonar imaging; and data analysis. Partner institutes share all research and experimental trial infrastructure. UNIGE-ISME is responsible for the ROV autonomous capabilities development, including both navigation and manipulation control.
Idiap is an independent, nonprofit research foundation in Martigny, Switzerland. Affiliated with EPFL in Lausanne, its activities encompass basic research and development in the areas of multimedia information management, perceptual and cognitive systems, social media, biometric person recognition, multimodal information interfaces, and large scale machine learning. The Robot Learning & Interaction group at Idiap focuses on human-centric applications, with the development of probabilistic techniques to transfer movements and behaviors to robots. Idiap is responsible for the development of a cognitive engine that has the purpose of learning ROV tasks from operators’ demonstrations.
Graal Tech is an engineering SME, specialised in providing intelligent mechatronic solutions for marine and underwater applications. A spin-off from the University of Genova established 15 years ago, the company has continued to expand its research and development potential and now offers a wide range of products and services. As specialists for oil and gas, defence, space and security, oceanography and environmental monitoring, they work with many companies in the private, government and academic domains. GT is responsible for the development of a dexterous, deep sea proven, robotic manipulator.
EJR-Quartz is a specialist in the field of scientific communication support and publication, both in print and online. Established in 1999, the EJR-Quartz international and multicultural team combines editorial skills and web technology expertise. Since 1995, the two founding partners have collaborated on a number of projects, mainly for the European Space Agency. The teams of editors, writers, graphic designers and programmers are based in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK. EJR-Quartz is responsible for DexROV public communications activities, including the web site and social media channels.