OTC-BASE represents the technological basis for all development projects planned within the framework of the Ocean Technology Campus Rostock. Both methodological and technological developments are to be given equal consideration within OTC-BASE. The goal is to provide a physical development environment for targeted research on underwater technologies that will enable largely autonomous exploration of the marine environment in the future. OTC-BASE creates the possibility within the cluster to test new technologies and systems in an uncomplicated way and much faster than before under real conditions, e.g., at the Digital Ocean Lab (DOL). In its first approach, the project represents a modular infrastructure installed on the seafloor, which will be supplemented by mobile systems in later development stages. With OTC-BASE, previously missing bridge technologies for underwater applications are being developed and accompanied to pre-industrial product maturity.

Due to the advancing climate change, the monitoring of physical as well as increasingly chemical and biological parameters in the oceans is steadily gaining in importance. In an open innovation process, a novel "flapping-foil" underwater glider will be developed to serve as an augmenting tool to existing global ocean monitoring networks. The underwater glider will be largely modular and pressure-neutral. In its final stage of development, it will be superior to today's gliders in terms of speed, attainable diving depth and manageability. This will be achieved, among other things, by the novel glide concept, which, in conjunction with an intelligent, self-adjusting navigation and control system, will enable autonomous adaptation to variable environmental conditions. These innovations make the vehicle efficient and quick to deploy, even from the air. This opens up further markets in the field of small-scale tasks such as monitoring and tracking of algae blooms, oil-spill response and hurricane monitoring, which require a measuring vehicle to be deployed on site within a very short time.

ROV's as well as AUV's are used as carrier platforms for highly sensitive hydroacoustic sensor systems and also use them for their own position and attitude control. Electrically driven propellers (thrusters) are used as propulsion systems. The problem is that structural vibrations are introduced into the ROV or AUV by the propulsion system, which can lead to a radiation of hydro-sound and cause disturbances in the applied sensor systems. The main sources for this are the electrical drive of the thruster itself or its power electronics and the drive propeller. Within the overall project, a modular and scalable platform for hubless thruster systems (MSTP) up to initially approx. 30 kW is to be developed. A particularly low-vibration and quiet operating behavior, high hydrodynamic efficiency as well as modularity are the main focus. ROVs and AUVs operate partly in the deep sea, so that all electrical and mechanical components must be designed to be pressure-neutral. Especially for the components of the required power electronics, it must be ensured that they meet this requirement. To date, there has been little research and little available knowledge in this area, which will be remedied by this collaborative project. In strategic medium-term planning, the availability of an MSTP with the required properties will enable KPG to offer low-vibration and quiet thruster systems for different applications and customer requirements much more flexibly than before. In the longer-term strategic planning, after the construction and testing of the first MSTP prototypes, the commercial and worldwide marketing of these, as well as the expansion of the MSTP product portfolio, is planned.

The application of the energy supply system is envisaged for instrument technology in the offshore industry, marine research technology, environmental monitoring and, in the short and medium term, in inland and coastal shipping. It should also allow new types of instruments with relatively high-power consumption to be operated reliably over longer periods at low cost and in a much more resource-efficient manner than with batteries. Battery systems currently still have very low gravimetric energy densities (< 200 Whel/kg) and volumetric energy densities (< 300 Whel/l). Accordingly, heavy and voluminous battery modules must be used in the underwater devices for long-term operations. In contrast, gravimetric energy densities of up to 850 Whel/kg and 500 Whel/l can be achieved with fuel cell systems.

The aim of this study is to establish processes and methods based on the submarine for the maintenance of offshore wind turbines developed by Neptun Ship Design GmbH (NSD) from Rostock as part of the BMBF joint project Offshore Wind Solutions MV. The aim of the project was to integrate a submarine within the framework of an offshore wind farm service concept and to introduce it later as a product in the offshore wind market. In OTC-Sub, an exploitation concept is to be developed, in which further application scenarios and business models for this type of underwater vehicle are to be worked out, and a consortium based at the Ocean Technology Campus is to be put together for the construction of the vehicle. Furthermore, it will be examined whether - and if so, with which adaptations - the vehicle can be a useful addition to the Digital Ocean Lab (DOL) of the Ocean Technology Campus. Drive units (thrusters), energy storage (batteries, fuel cells, …) as well as novel measurement procedures, communication methods, sensors, energy transfer systems, etc. can be tested at a very early stage without already having underwater-suitable and small electronics (with the laptop into the submarine).