Rovco Adds New Member to Its Senior Management Team

UK-based subsea company Rovco has strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of Dr Iain Wallace as chief technology officer (CTO).

A former technical lead for the European Space Agency, Wallace will drive the development of a real-time 3D vision system for ROVs and AUVs. He will also explore how artificial intelligence can be used to solve asset integrity issues by extracting actionable information from traditional video survey data.

As CTO, he will enhance Rovco’s underwater photogrammetric 3D modelling capabilities utilizing the latest simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) techniques for complex underwater inspections.

Wallace joins Rovco from SCISYS where he was an autonomy and robotics analyst. Prior to this he was a research associate at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh.

With more than 15 years’ experience in the robotics, computer science and software engineering space, Wallace also worked on the European Space Agency’s Master project and the UK Space Agency’s Chameleon field trial.

Iain Wallace said: “The space and subsea sectors are very similar in many ways. Outer space and underwater are the two frontiers of discovery, which have both benefited from mapping and exploration technology to unearth what lies beneath and beyond. Both are accustomed to harsh environments, extremely remote operations and are constantly on the lookout for technologies which will make operations simpler, safer and increase the return on investment, be it science discovery or accurate survey outputs.

“I am looking forward to exchanging my knowledge and experience across these sectors, while working for a company that is pushing the boundaries to develop technology that supports future offshore operations.”

Brian Allen, CEO of Rovco, added: “We are investing in the development and deployment of systems and services that deliver real value to our customers. Iain will be instrumental in driving this strategy forward while also developing our ROV 3D visualization offerings and AUV capability.”