THOUSAND OAKS, CA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Teledyne Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TDY) announced that Teledyne Marine, a group of Teledyne Technologies Inc. businesses, and the Instrument Development Group (IDG) of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have formed an alliance intended to advance the state of the art of autonomous underwater glider systems. Under this alliance, Teledyne has licensed hardware and software technology related to Scripps' SPRAY glider and intends to manufacture gliders subject to these licenses.
Underwater gliders such as SPRAY use buoyancy changes to power their forward gliding and to change depth while movable weights control vehicle pitch and roll. The very low power consumption of gliders allows autonomous operation for months, which makes them very suitable for a variety of applications where long-term data acquisition and analysis are desired. For example, underwater gliders currently measure ocean salinity, temperature and currents, allowing scientists to better understand and predict ocean fluctuations and trends.
Teledyne and IDG plan to cooperate on the development of next-generation underwater gliders and advanced sensor systems with the goal of expanding their capabilities and opening up new applications in fields such as weather and climate change, fisheries and aquaculture and subsea to satellite communications. To support the alliance, Teledyne will sponsor independent research related to glider technology at IDG and is providing technical personnel to collaborate with IDG founder and research professor of oceanography Russ Davis and Jim Dufour, IDG lab manager and principal development engineer.
"Teledyne is privileged to have this opportunity to partner with the Scripps' Instrument Development Group on next generation glider technology," said Robert Mehrabian, Teledyne's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Under the leadership of Russ Davis, IDG has been a pioneer in developing oceanographic instruments, including profiling drifters and gliders, since its establishment in 1972.
"Our new alliance with IDG is highly complementary to our pending acquisition of Webb Research Corp., manufacturer of the Slocum glider. With this alliance we will be able to bring together the resources of leading industrial and academic organizations involved with glider research and development as well as the extensive capabilities in development and manufacturing of unmanned underwater vehicle instrumentation, communication, navigation and interconnect products of the Teledyne Marine group of companies."
"Teledyne has a long history of providing sophisticated oceanic equipment," responded Davis, "and it is exciting to see our work being adopted by this innovative company. Nobody can guess what role these new technologies will play as Teledyne addresses the opportunities and challenges of the still largely unexplored ocean."
About Teledyne Technologies
Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated electronic components, instruments and communication products, systems engineering solutions, aerospace engines and components and on-site gas and power generation systems. Teledyne Technologies has operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Canada.
About Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at UC San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and graduate training in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.