Argos 90 – Drone Carrier

Argos 90 performs deep sea research and supports offshore construction through drones.  Designed to carry and deploy drones in air, water surface, and subsea, she enables massive surveys over a wide region.  Go beyond human limitations and see the bigger picture.

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Work Smarter with Drones

Whether air, sea, or subsea, drones have become an ubiquitous tool for maritime research.  But you can only learn so much from the shore.  The Argos 90 enables deep sea research and massive data collection by deploying whole fleets of research drones.  No matter the weather, we have a method to deploy them.

  1. Onboard ROV for deep sea research
  2. Offshore crane to lower large drones over the side
  3. Moonpool for heavy weather deployment of subsea drones
  4. Stern launch ramp to deploy drones in heavy weather
  5. Extendable bridge cranes to lower drones directly from the stern
  6. Flight deck for mass launching swarms of aerial drones

These same capabilities also allow the Argos 90 to act in offshore construction support and maintenance.  Argos 90 boasts moderate capabilities for offshore construction.  She’s not meant to for primary construction.  Instead, she supports maintenance and repair activities.  Why pay for a massive vessel when you can get the smaller Argos 90 at a fraction of the cost.  But smaller size doesn’t reduce features.  She includes an offshore construction crane, onboard ROV, and can be retrofitted for saturation dive support.

No matter the mission, the Argos 90 adapts to your needs.

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Major Features

The Argos 90 combines multiple motion control technologies to remain mission capable all the way up to Seastate 7 (Beaufort 9)!  This gives her a 99% uptime*.  With the Argos 90, weather delays rarely happen.

*99% uptime calculated for North Atlantic ocean.  Actual uptime varies slightly based on local wave climate.

Using a combination of the offshore crane and two bridge cranes, the Argos 90 can move your equipment from the dock to the protected working deck, down to the sheltered boat deck, and back out over the stern.  These three cranes give us the control to install your cargo anywhere you want.

Argos 90 carries up to 488 MT (480 LT) of deck cargo.  She supports of a maximum of 34 TEU for containerized equipment.  The working deck and boat deck include full electrical, plumbing, and data hookups.

  • Massive wet lab
  • Giant dry lab
  • Dedicated control room for ROV and drone operations
  • Office spaces just for scientists
  • Scientist lounge
  • Amphitheater, with ship to shore conferencing

The biggest limitation for aerial drones is their short battery life (quad-copters especially).  Argos 90 includes an aerial tether to supply constant power to your aerial drone.  What can you achieve with a 24/7 eye in the sky?

Multi-Mission Support

As much as we like marine research, not everyone has a budget to mount massive expeditions.  With a vessel like the Argos 90, it can be difficult to find enough business to match the operating costs.  That’s why the Argos 90 supports multiple mission profiles.  She can work in marine research, or support offshore construction and maintenance.  By picking from a wide range of clients, we keep the vessel fully booked.

The Argos 90 comes equipped with a powerful multibeam sonar mounted directly into her hull.  She includes multiple technologies to control ship roll.  This yields more time with the sonar pointed at the seabed.  End result:  higher quality data, faster surveys, larger coverage.  In addition, she includes a series of hatches with crane access straight down to the sonar transciever bay.  Perfect for equipment upgrades and modifications.

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The Argos 90 supports offshore construction projects.  She wasn’t designed to install equipment for new greenfields.  Instead, she includes a moderate cargo capacity, and a moderate day rate.  The ideal combination to maintain and inspect existing subsea installations.  She comes equipped with a moonpool, onboard ROV, and offshore crane to safely deploy replacement parts.  Her DP2 dynamic positioning keeps you on station,  working through the storm.

Plus, the drone capability benefits the offshore industry as well.  We can deploy arrays of side scanning sonars, or a whole fleet of autonomous drones to perform pipeline inspection.  Even in the offshore industry, the Argos 90 lets you do more with less time.  Because time is money.

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Whether fisheries research, mapping a historical wreck, or studying bird nesting patterns, the Argos 90 can adapt to your needs.  Everything from dedicated labs and van support, to deploying drones over whole stretches of the sea.  Go beyond the microscope and see the whole pattern at once.

  1. Wet lab:  82 sq. m (879 sq. ft) of space.
  2. Dedicated drone control center
  3. Mission bay to deploy whole array of side scanning sonars, deep sea drones, or anything else.
  4. Stern ramp that configures for small boat deployment, or serves as fishing net recovery for population sampling.
  5. Deploy 15-34 TEU of vans with electric, water, and data hookups.  Enough capacity to build any specialized research equipment.
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  • Gross tonnage
  • Length overall
  • Beam overall
  • Navigation draft
  • Cruise speed
  • Range at cruise speed
  • 6133 GT
  • 97 m (318 ft)
  • 17.5 m (57.4 ft)
  • 7.6 m (24.9 ft)
  • 12 knots
  • 9000 NM
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Customize the Argos 90

Everything at DMS is fully custom.  We can start from the Argos 90 and adapt it to fit your exact needs.  Let’s transform dreams into your next ship.

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