What Does Oshen Do?
Oshen develops autonomous, wind-powered robots for remote ocean monitoring.
These micro-vessels, just 4 feet long and resembling miniature sailboats, are designed for cost-effective mass deployment.
By deploying a network of micro-vessels with sensors across the ocean, Oshen enables continuous, widespread tracking of oceanic conditions, including wave conditions and weather phenomena.
Founders.
Anahita Laverack
CEO
Background: Holding a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College London, Anahita completed her Master's in the design and navigation of transatlantic autonomous micro-vessels. Prior to co-founding Oshen, she worked as a robotics engineer at start-up KinKeepers.
Present day: Anahita currently oversees Oshen's strategic development and hardware design, applying her specialised knowledge to advance autonomous marine sensing technologies.
Fun fact: A keen sailor, Anahita maintains that an underlying motivation for providing ocean data for better forecasts was born in 2020, after having to double-handed sail continuously for 3 days to try outrun a poorly forecast storm.
Ciaran Dowds
CTO
Background: Ciaran holds an MEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Imperial College London, where he earned a place on the Dean's List for his academic achievements. Before Oshen, Ciaran developed an app used by NHS speech therapists for children, and workedat DSTL.
Present day: As CTO and co-founder, Ciaran leads on further improvements across all areas of Oshen's R&D, as well as developing the main autonomous control system for the platforms.
Fun fact: After recovering an Oshen platform from the Irish Sea, despite being a recent convert to sailing, Ciaran solo sailed the 25ft sailboat through a force 5 back to their home port.
Our Team.
At Oshen, we’re a passionate and skilled group of innovators dedicated to revolutionizing ocean sensing. With expertise spanning marine robotics, environmental science, and autonomous systems, our team is united by a shared vision: to unlock the mysteries of the ocean and provide actionable data for a more sustainable future.
By combining innovative technology with domain knowledge & experience in building small, robust ocean hardware, we are building the foundation for a global ocean sensing network—transforming how we understand and interact with the world’s oceans.
Advisors.
Brett Phaneuf
Brett is the founder and chief executive of Submergence Group (USA) / MSubs (UK), specialising in robust, manned and unmanned ocean-going systems. A serial entrepreneur, Brett recently lead the development of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship - a 50ft AI powered vessel that crossed the Atlantic in June 2022.
Wayne Pavalko
Founder WRG, Inventor of the MakerBuoy. Driven by a fascination with the Internet of Things applied to the ocean, Wayne pioneered the MakerBuoy - an open source, low cost drifter. From Atlantic crossings to tracking ocean plastic, Wayne’s creations have survived the harshest of ocean environments, often for 600+ days.
Dr Peter Smout
An Associate Fellow at Rolls Royce, Peter has over 30 years experience in technical engineering challenges, and has contributed to several patents ranging from composite fan blades to a novel method of operating a heat exchanger assembly for a gas turbine engine.
Arthur Richier
Head of Partnerships, strategy and sustainability at Vortexa, a leading energy and shipping AI analytics scale-up, and has featured in Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, The Moscow Times and The Houston Chronicle. His specialist interest in machine learning extends to start-up funding across logistics and insurance.
FAQs
Why Micro-vessels? Traditional data collection methods, such as drifting buoys, short-range or expensive ASVs or manned ships, are falling short in the face of modern demands for spatially dense weather and environmental data. Drifting buoys, while useful, are limited by their inability to remain in target locations and require an expensive deployment mission. Manned ships, on the other hand, are expensive and not always feasible for continuous data collection. Our autonomous micro-vessels solve these problems by behaving like drifting buoys with a purpose. They harness wind and solar power to navigate and maintain position in desired areas, ensuring a steady stream of reliable data. With our technology, you get the efficiency of drifting buoys and the precision of vessels, but without the drawbacks.
What data do the micro-vessels collect? Our vessels collect meteorological, visual and acoustic data. If you’d like to know more about specific payload or sensor configurations, contact us.
How are they deployed? The micro-vessels are single person deployable: one person can pick up, carry and throw overboard. We’ve launched from beaches, pontoons, fishing boats…
How long can a micro-vessel operate at sea? Our micro-vessels are engineered for endurance. By using wind for propulsion and solar to power the onboard electronics, they don't have a finite range and can operate for months at a time. Onboard batteries power the micro-vessel when solar availability is low (e.g nighttime, heavy storms).
How do I control micro-vessels during a mission? The micro-vessels are fully autonomous and are designed to need minimal supervision or operator training. Choose from two modes: ‘station-keeping’ ie. tracking a set point, or ‘line-tracking’, ie. moving slowly between waypoints.
Timeline
We’re an ambitious company on a mission to provide affordable en-masse ocean data collection. Currently, we’re working hard to pack our micro-vessels full of robust and reliable technology, ready to shift from short offshore trials to multi-month ocean missions. Below, we’ve shared a little about our journey so far, and what you can expect from us in the future..
Founders begin work to design an autonomous micro-vessel.
2021
2022
First micro-vessel built and tested in conditions up to Beaufort force six.
Oshen awarded funding from the European Space Agency. Begin project with DEFRA assessing using the micro-vessels for biodiversity monitoring.
2023
Micro-vessels complete 24hr fully autonomous unsupervised missions at sea, fitted with MetOcean and Passive Acoustic Monitoring sensors.
The Guardian, BBC news and The Times feature exclusive interviews about Oshen.
2024
Micro-vessels completing 30 day autonomous sea trials (up to Beaufort Force 8).
Manufacture fleet of 5 micro-vessels
Micro-vessels tested on the open ocean for a sustained period of time.
SPRING 2025
MISSIONS BEGIN
Early partners and clients receive their first micro-vessels and begin live operations.