Spotter Scout | Autonomous Ocean Sensor USV | Sofar Ocean

Spotter Scout

MOBILE OCEAN MONITORING
In Beta
Starting at $69,995

Trusted Spotter wave, weather, and ocean sensing on a long-endurance uncrewed vehicle built by Online Oceans. Station-keep in deep water for months, transit between locations, or deploy as a drifter that returns home.

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What is the Spotter Platform?

Spotter is a modular, rapidly deployable marine sensing platform that delivers real-time surface and subsurface ocean data to power better decisions.

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NEW: Webinar introducing Spotter Scout, Spotter sensing on an uncrewed vehicle. Watch Recording →

Engineered to Endure

The ocean is hard on everything you put into it. Spotter Scout is engineered to take the punishment and keep operating unattended for months at a time.

Storm Proven

Survivable. Self-righting in any conditions. Operational through Sea State 7–8.

Radically Simple

One thruster and one rudder servo. That's every moving part on the vehicle.

Resilient by Design

Open to the ocean by design. No trapped air, no compartment to breach, nothing to flood.

View Technical Specifications →

What is Spotter Scout?

Spotter Scout is an uncrewed, solar-powered vehicle built by Online Oceans. It carries Sofar's trusted Spotter sensing to any ocean location and keeps it there for months.

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Components

01

Solar Array & Battery

340W solar and 2 kWh battery. Months of operation with no fuel required.

02

Spotter Core

The same sensing core in every Spotter buoy. 
Waves, wind, and weather data to your Dashboard.

03

Bristlemouth Payload Bay

Add Temperature, Salinity, and other compatible sensors for co-located subsurface measurements.

04

Satellite/Cell Communications

Iridium for always-on telemetry. Starlink 
for high-bandwidth control and live video on demand.

05

HD Camera

Time-lapse, video, and live streaming via Starlink 
for situational awareness during any mission.

06

Magnetic-Coupled Thruster

No shaft seal to wear out. 
Two moving parts on the entire vessel.

Mission Modes

Four ways to deploy Spotter Scout, from holding position in deep water to surveying entire regions with a single asset.

Deep Water Station Keeping

Hold position offshore without a mooring. Configure your station-keeping radius from 50m
to 10km and maintain presence for months.

Applications

Return-to-Home Drifting

Deploy as a drifter to follow currents and collect data along the way. When the mission is complete, command it to return. No retrieval vessel required.

Applications

Subsea-to-Satellite Gateway

Relay data from seabed sensors to the cloud without fixed infrastructure. Receive acoustic transmissions and forward via satellite, bridging seafloor to dashboard.

Applications

Spatial Survey & Gap Filling

Transit between locations to measure how conditions vary across a region. Fill coverage gaps in your Spotter network or scout new deployment sites.

Applications

See Spotter Scout in Action

Watch Spotter Scout deploy, transit, and hold station in open ocean.

Command the Vehicle. Access the Data.

Two platforms, one workflow. Tether controls where your Spotter Scout goes. The Spotter Dashboard shows what it measures.

Browser-Based Mission Control
Set waypoints, configure station-keeping, and monitor navigation from any device.

Real-Time Ocean Data
Wave spectra, weather, and subsurface observations streaming to the Spotter Dashboard.

API Data Integration Stream ocean observations directly into your applications with JSON-formatted data via the Spotter API.

Core Specifications

Key specifications at a glance.

VESSEL

NAVIGATION & CONTROL

SENSING & PAYLOAD