The U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center used the Gold Star Bridge Tuesday to test an electronic tracking device.
The Maritime Object Tracking Technology (MOTT) will help crews mark where something is in the water and quickly relocate it.
The Coast Guard would use MOTT to broadcast a GPS location to crews trying to return to a specific area of the water. When crews get closer to the chosen location, a strobe light would help complete the recovery process.
“You don’t have to keep a boat crew on tracking a certain thing. You have them go off and do something more important,” said John McLeod, an operations specialist analyst with the research and development center.
One example the MOTT could be used for is marking an oil sheen so another Coast Guard unit could investigate the area later, officials said.
On Tuesday, researchers dropped the MOTT from the Gold Star Bridge into the Thames River to test its resilience. The distance is about 200 feet.
The ultimate goal is to drop the MOTTs from a helicopter at 500 feet, while traveling at approximately 80 miles per hour or other high speed vessels. In either case, the device would make significant impact with the water, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.
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“Not all prototypes were recovered. Some of them broke, some of them cracked. The fall from height has significant forces involved,” Capt. Dennis Evans, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, said.
Researchers dropped 15 MOTTs into the Thames River on Tuesday but only recovered eight.
The MOTT is significantly less expensive than other Coast Guard technology that could get lost at sea, Evans said. Plus it activates after three minutes, so it doesn’t interfere with the electronics inside the helicopter.
The Coast Guard Research and Development Center in New London initially created a prototype of the MOTT with 3-D printing technology. After running some field tests, the center contracted the Navy to create a more sophisticated prototype made out of high-density plastic, which was tested Tuesday.
The Coast Guard Research and Development Center and the Navy will review the results of Tuesday’s test and work to refine the design.
Once the MOTT is redesigned, the Coast Guard will do another test like the one at the Gold Star Bridge. Then they’ll head to San Francisco to test the MOTTs from a helicopter.
