TWI is one of Europe’s foremost independent not-for-profit research and technology organisations, employing 740 scientists, technologists, administrative and support staff world-wide (540 in the UK and Europe) and with annual (2012) group sales of £75million (€88 million) and UK/Europe annual (2012) sales of £61 million (€72 million). TWI works across all industry sectors with expertise in key aspects of materials, materials joining, structural integrity, static and dynamic testing and Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE). TWI has a large fee paying industrial membership of around 3000 members from 65 countries centred mainly in energy related business sectors such as oil & gas, petrochemical, process plant, power generation and their support industries (e.g. pressure vessel and component manufacture and fabrication) and also in the transportation industry sector of aerospace/air-transport, marine/shipping, rail and automotive and their support manufacturing and maintenance organisations.

CGG is a fully integrated Geoscience company providing leading geological, geophysical and reservoir capabilities to its broad base of customers primarily from the global oil and gas industry.

Within the ROBUST proposal, CGG is interested as an end-user to assess how this technology could be used to characterize the seabed composition and therefore estimate its elastic parameters.

ALS MARINE CONSULTANTS Ltd is a leading engineering consultancy firm in Cyprus which provides consulting services and participates in scientific projects regarding marine, offshore and underwater technology. In addition the company participates in engineering programs, studies and conducts Underwater Engineering and Salvage Operations with Submersibles and Divers. The Company provides a wide range of quality services: such as Ship Management in compliance with ISM Code, certified by Germanischer Lloyd, Structural Studies with the use of Finite Element Method; hydrodynamic Studies; development of structures made of metallic and composite materials, marine, underwater operations with the use of submersibles (manned, autonomous, remote, hybrid). Scientific Marine Research Projects related to underwater technology and environment. ALS is also commercially involved in underwater projects such as, design and construction of underwater structures, underwater survey and inspection of pipes, cables, structures and the seabed, etc. and ship salvage and ship wreckage removal.

ALS will be responsible for the structural and mechanical design and manufacturing of the LIBS module and associated pressure housings. Also the umbilical cord and the casing of the LIBS probe for operation up to 6000m water depth. ALS will also supervise the pressure tank test performed in GEOMAR for the operation of the whole LIBS system.

LZH, founded in 1986, is an independent non-profit, non-university research institution. The main fields of research are laser technology, optics, and photonics. About 150 scientists, engineers, and technical employees are working in 6 scientific departments. LZH is involved in various R&D projects, ranging from biophotonics to laser development, from nanotechnology to material sciences, and from industrial engineering to medical technology technical. Furthermore, LZH experts perform scientific consulting to link research and practice, and industry- oriented training of industrial experts for applying and operating laser systems. Due to interdisciplinary cooperation between production engineers, material scientists, and physicists, LZH has been able to set high quality standards and thus belongs to the top league of regional, national and international research institutes.

In the ROBUST project departments Laser Development and Materials and Processes will work together to develop a smart LIBS system for detection of minerals in subsea. The two departments combine extensive knowledge in laser and process development. This gives the LZH a unique position.

The GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Kiel, Germany) is a centre of excellence for marine Earth System Science of European dimension. The institute is a member of the Helmholtz Association since 2012. About 820 employees are involved in the four major research divisions: Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics, Marine Biogeochemistry, Marine Ecology, and Dynamics of the Ocean Floor. The research mission of the institute is the interdisciplinary investigation of physical, chemical, biological, and geographical processes in the ocean and their interaction with the seafloor and the atmosphere. Research efforts are expanding to applied aspects such as predicting human impact and natural fluctuations on climate development, sea-level changes, natural hazards, gas hydrates, and marine CO2-sequestration. On international level, GEOMAR cooperates with many marine science institutions and, for example, is a member of POGO and of the Marine Board of ESF.

Graal Tech is a research and consultancy SME working in the fields of underwater robotics, control system design, instrumentation and electromechanical engineering. The firm was established in 1998 as a spin-off company from the University of Genova. During years the industrial vocation of Graal Tech consolidated, even if a strong linkage with academic and research environments has been always preserved. Indeed, other than having continuous and fruitful collaborations with prestigious research institutions like CMRE (Nato Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation), the Company participated to several successful EU research projects1 focused on development of technologies for marine and underwater environments. Today the core business of Graal Tech is designing and developing intelligent mechatronic systems for marine applications. Two main products are currently commercialized: eFOLAGA AUV and the UMA underwater modular arm.

From its own point of view, Graal Tech has a strong interest to participate in the consortium. The company will not act in ROBUST as a simple technology provider but will be also a valuable partner in the exploitation phase of the project outcome. Graal Tech does currently design and develop mechatronic systems for underwater applications. Therefore it is clearly interested in developing new systems to be integrated with its off-the-shelf production in order to increase its commercial offer and to enlarge the range of application for its products. Indeed, in case the ROBUST overall system will be successful, additional business opportunities would immediate arise from the exploitation of the project results.

NEOLASE is a privately held company and a spin-off of the Laser Centrum Hannover e.V. neoLASE is providing customized diode-pumped solid-state laser solutions for industrial laser material applications or R&D based research. Main products are optical amplifier and MOPA system solutions, high energy nanosecond lasers or customized laser electronics.

NEOLASE has main experience in industrial and high reliable DPSS lasers as well as needed pump diode configurations, laser electronic drivers and control electronics.
LZH spin-off company NEOLASE will support as a project partner the commercialization of the laser system. NEOLASE an SME which targets sectors seeking customized laser solutions wants to explore and extend its customer base to the offshore and sea bed mining sector by developing custom laser products for geological surveys and element identification of sea bed mineral deposits.

UNIGE-ISME is an Inter-university Research Center that supports research activities in the fields of marine technologies and oceanic engineering. UNIGE-ISME groups together Italian researchers working at various Italian Universities: Genova, Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Salento (Lecce), Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona), Pisa and Firenze .

UNIGE-ISME benefits of the research infrastructure of the participating departments (laboratories, workshops, etc.), and has the purpose of exploiting synergies and collaborative efforts among the participants within an agile and flexible organizational structure.

Coronis Computing SL is a spin-off company of the Computer Vision and Robotics group of the University of Girona (Spain). The company carries out research, development and technology transfer activities in the field of computer vision and machine learning. Its primary fields of application are the following:

• Industry. Techniques developed by the company allow highly automated manufacturing processes increasing the production speed, reliability, and reducing associated costs.
• Undewater Imaging, 3D reconstruction and mapping. Coronis is a world leader company in 2D and 3D mapping of visual and acoustic data, as well as 3D object reconstruction.
• Medical Imaging. The company is actively involved in collaborations with medical centers, aiming to develop novel techniques for improved acquisition, processing and interpretation of medical data using various imaging modalities (MRI, X-ray, optical, etc.)
• Media surveillance. During the last years, the company has focused on the development of novel technologies with application to image understanding and semantic video classification. Automated video classification and real-time analysis of surveillance videos has been implemented in R&D projects and applied into end-user products.