Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo IIS ocean centre whose Maki Lab builds hovering AUVs (Tri-TON, MONACA, HATTORI) and runs the Hiratsuka offshore test tower.
The Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology (CIUOT) is a research centre of the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) at the University of Tokyo, based on the Komaba Research Campus in Meguro, Tokyo. It began operating on 1 April 2016 as the successor to the institute's earlier Underwater Technology Research Center and International Research Center for Underwater Technology, and brings together laboratories working on ocean observation platforms, sensing, data fusion and ocean cyber-physical systems. Since April 2021 its stated goal has been to combine underwater observation engineering with IoT, artificial intelligence and big-data methods to build a cyber representation of the ocean that is tightly linked to physical measurements. The centre is directed by Professor Chang-kyu Rheem, and in fiscal 2024 it had eight core faculty members, including Associate Professors Toshihiro Maki and Blair Thornton, plus two cooperating members and partner researchers at Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kochi University, Kyushu University, Kyoto University, Waseda University, Nihon University, Meiji University and JAMSTEC.
Marine robotics at the centre is concentrated in the Maki Laboratory (underwater platform systems), led by Associate Professor Toshihiro Maki, which develops autonomous underwater vehicles around the themes of platform technology, navigation and data processing. Its fleet includes Tri-Dog 1, a hovering AUV rated to 110 m first built in 1999; Tri-TON, an 800 m hovering AUV completed in 2011 for precise observation of hydrothermal fields and rebuilt in 2023 as a general-purpose testbed with more onboard computing (1.3 m long, 150 kg in air); Tri-TON 2, a 2,000 m hovering AUV completed in 2013 with a DVL and high-performance inertial navigation for accurate image mapping without external aiding; and MONACA, a 1,500 m hovering AUV launched in 2019 for exploring beneath Antarctic ice shelves and sea ice, whose sensor section can be flipped to look up at ice or down at the seabed. MONACA was deployed on the 64th and 66th Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions, and during JARE66 achieved what the lab describes as Japan's first untethered AUV operation in the Southern Ocean.
The lab also builds low-cost systems. HATTORI (Highly Agile Terrain Tracker for Ocean Research and Investigation) is a small cruising AUV that can be launched without a crane, built from general-purpose parts on the Robot Operating System, and able to follow rough seabed at low altitude using a scanning-sonar algorithm. HATTORI 2, co-developed with FullDepth Co., Ltd. and rated to 300 m, mapped coral reefs in the Sekisei Lagoon off Ishigaki Island in November 2018. BUTTORI is a buoy-type autonomous surface vehicle with SSBL acoustic positioning and communication that tracks and talks to AUVs; development began in 2018 and full operations started in 2020. HATTORI knowledge is now being commercialised by BlueArch K.K., a Maki Lab spinout founded in January 2026 that sells the HATTORI Neo AUV and lists Maki as an outside director.
Current research topics include resident AUVs that dock automatically with seafloor stations and recharge without contact; multi-AUV operation using acoustic positioning, visible-light communication and reinforcement-learning-based relative position control; detection and tag-free tracking of sea turtles and other large marine animals with sonar and cameras; under-ice navigation; and automated inspection of offshore wind and port infrastructure, including multibeam-sonar tracking of mooring chains on floating offshore wind turbines. Funding sources listed for fiscal 2024 include joint research with FullDepth and Shimadzu Corporation, JSPS KAKENHI grants and an SBIR project of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to develop a small-AUV system for routine inspection of port structures.
Other centre laboratories cover marine environmental engineering and wave energy, seafloor geodesy and information systems, ocean perception systems, integrated seafloor observation, marine ecosystem and aquaculture engineering, and structural health monitoring. The centre operates the Hiratsuka Offshore Experimental Tower, a research platform about 1 km off Hiratsuka in Sagami Bay at 20 m water depth that publishes live oceanographic and meteorological data and underwater camera feeds, and uses the IIS ocean engineering basin and a wind-wave-current flume. It co-sponsors the semi-annual Underwater and Seafloor Engineering Forum ZERO, supports the annual Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC run by the Underwater Robonet NPO, organises an annual workshop on scientific use of submarine cables, and co-organises the IEEE OES Underwater Technology symposium, with UT27 scheduled at IIS in early 2027.
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Contact Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
WEBSITE
https://seasat.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/HEADQUARTERS
Japan
Company Facts
Founded
2016
Primary Role
Research Institute
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Asia-Pacific
Annual Sales
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Funding Stage
Grant / Non-profit
Funding Total
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Keywords
- Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology
- Institute of Industrial Science
- The University of Tokyo
- hovering AUV
- Tri-TON
- MONACA
- HATTORI
- BUTTORI
- under-ice exploration
- resident AUV docking
- multi-AUV navigation
- Hiratsuka offshore tower
- mooring line inspection
- Research Institute
- Unmanned Marine Vehicle
- AUV
- USV
- Education & Research
- Research Platform
