Seafloor Systems, Inc.
California hydrographic survey firm founded 1999 that builds portable survey USVs (HyDrone, TriDrone, Trident, EchoBoat, HydroCat-550) and AutoNav.
Seafloor Systems, Inc. is a US hydrographic survey equipment company in El Dorado Hills, California. It builds portable uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) for survey work and also sells, rents and supports third-party survey sensors. John Tamplin founded the company in 1999 and is its CEO. He was previously a US Navy sonar technician who ran hydrographic surveys with side-scan sonar to find undersea mines for EOD and mine-clearance operations. The company describes itself as "from hydrographers, for hydrographers": its team of engineers and former surveyors builds tools for field crews. Seafloor says it has been building USVs for more than a decade.
The USV line covers several sizes:
- TriDrone Gen.3. A foldable, triple-pontoon micro-USV for confined and remote waters. It is 1.24 m long and weighs 10 kg, with an 11 kg payload, servo-thruster steering and a built-in Hydrolite SF200-9 single-frequency echosounder in the pontoon. It runs up to 9 hours at survey speed on field-swappable batteries.
- HyDrone 4.5. Seafloor's flagship one-person portable catamaran. It has a 1.24 m HDPE hull, weighs 9.8 kg with batteries and carries a 15 kg payload. Survey speed is 2 kn, endurance up to 9 hours, and remote range up to 1 km. It assembles without tools and works with any GPS brand.
- Trident. A 1.3 m trimaran with an aluminium centre hull built around compact multibeam sonars. Its outriggers detach so one person can carry it.
- EchoBoat-160. A fifth-generation, two-person portable USV, 1.7 m long and 50 kg, with a 27 kg payload and up to 2 km remote range. Swappable modules support single-beam, multibeam, ADCP, side-scan, sub-bottom and magnetometer payloads. It can also run in swarm configurations.
- EchoBoat-240. A 2.4 m wave-piercing USV with a 90.7 kg payload and three transducer wells (main, ADCP/DVL and SVP). It can be launched from a trailer or cart, or lowered by davit from a crewed boat to work alongside it.
- HydroCat-550. A 5.5 m aluminium catamaran with articulating pontoons, a gimballed deck, a retractable sonar pole and twin electric Torqeedo outboards. It carries 365 kg of equipment, reaches 12 kn and runs 4-18 hours at survey speed. It is rated up to sea state 5 for inshore and nearshore work.
Seafloor also makes the accessories that support these boats. AutoNav and AutoNav Plus are autonomous control units that let USVs follow pre-planned survey lines; the Plus version adds long-range communications and an onboard computer for logging. SmartCast is a USV winch that automatically lowers sensors to set depths. EchoCart/LARS is a modular transport and launch-and-recovery system.
The boats are used for bathymetric and inspection surveys of lakes, rivers, harbours, reservoirs, dredge ponds, mine pits and tailings, sewage treatment plants and contaminated waters, where crewed boats are impractical or unsafe. Seafloor lists marine construction, hydrographic survey, hydrospatial and mining as its main application areas.
Besides its own vessels, Seafloor supplies survey sensors and software from partner manufacturers. Its rental fleet includes Teledyne SeaBat multibeams, Klein side-scan, Applanix motion sensors, AML and Valeport sound-velocity probes, EdgeTech sub-bottom profilers, and HYPACK, CARIS, Teledyne PDS and SonarWiz software. It also sells ex-rental units, offers technical support, and runs a network of US and international dealers.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
More related news
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
-
5
Construction Robotics Summit 2027: April 14, Brooklyn RobotToday · Oct 05, 2026
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
-
13
ISARC 2027: June 26-July 1, Odense, Denmark RobotToday · Oct 06, 2026
-
14
CICEE 2027: May 12-15, Changsha, China RobotToday · Oct 05, 2026
-
15
NASA Lunabotics Challenge 2027, KSC, May 24-27 RobotToday · Oct 05, 2026
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
Contact Seafloor Systems, Inc.
WEBSITE
https://www.seafloorsystems.comPHONE
+1 530-677-1019HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
1999
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
