Intertidal has developed safe and reliable methodologies for using amphibious hovercraft to access difficult environments. These include estuaries and inshore coastal areas, as well as ports, harbours and rivers. Hovercraft are ideal for covering terrain rapidly where shallow water, sandbanks, mudflats or strong tides make conditions impossible or dangerous for other vehicles. Sampling times are reduced because large distances over mixed land/water terrains can be covered rapidly. The hovercraft can be launched from slipways, beaches, flood banks or using a crane.
Intertidal can collect a range of sediment and water samples to analyse for chemical, biological and physical parameters. We use a variety of sample collection techniques, including vacuum coring to take large samples of very soft sediment. We routinely sample common sediment types, most often for:
Additionally, we use our hovercraft as a survey platform. Common applications are:
In the last few years, we have increasingly used the hovercraft as a platform for drone operations (quadcopter and fixed wing). Flying drones from a hovercraft extends the range and coverage of the drone. Significant synergies are possible from combining these two platforms and this area is developing rapidly. If you have a specific project in mind, then please get in touch. We are passionate about leveraging technologies to extend the scope of what we can achieve in the field.
