Company Profile

Defining themselves as structured around the task of manufacturing Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, Tampa Deep Sea Xplorers LLC (TDSX) define their particular reason for being in rather different terms to that of most small firms/ SBIR applicants - specifically, the defined objective is successfully to compete in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE .. which objective (as management point out - requires upfront a substantial amount of funding. In 2019, the TDSX team was awarded “Runner Up” in the NOAA Challenge portion of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE and - in 2018 - had been one of seventeen semi-finalist teams in the overall competition. Passionate about underwater exploration and discovery, the firm's products are designed to enhance data collection in the deep ocean to depths up to 4000 meters. The TDSX mission is to provide deep sea vehicles robust enough to reach great depths at a price point that is affordable for individuals and small institutions. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) participation in the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project desires to synthesize bathymetric data to map all of the world’s ocean floors by the year 2030. One of the goals of the Seabed 2030 project is also to improve the existing subsea data and to “map the gaps” to find areas that are poorly mapped or that have been missed in previous data collections. TDSX is excited to participate in developing the technologies to accomplish the goals of the Seabed 2030 Initiative. If this challenge is to be realized within the designated time frame, thousands of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles will be required, that are capable of collecting data at a rate that is an order of magnitude greater than what is currently on the market. TDSX’s motto of “Deeper, Faster, and Cheaper” recognizes that new technologies will be required that far exceed the capabilities of data collection systems, such as single beam sonar which is commonly used on small ROVs and AUVs.