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Long-endurance Unmanned surface Vessel

The Sailbuoy by Offshore Sensing is a long-endurance unmanned surface vessel (USV) designed for oceanographic data collection, environmental monitoring, and other marine applications. 

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Autonomous Surface Vessels for the Future

Sailbuoy offers a low-impact solution for ocean data collection. Powered by wind and solar, it completed over 25,000 kilometres of missions in 2024 alone—avoiding up to 4,050 tonnes of CO₂ emissions compared to conventional vessels.

Available in flexible configurations, Sailbuoy supports applications from climate research to offshore monitoring. Use the configurator to customise a model to your needs.

Explore the USVs

20

Navigable wind speed range (m/s)

12

Maximum mission duration (in months)

3

The Sailbuoy's average speed in knots

The Sailbuoy technology

The Sailbuoy uses wind power for propulsion. Power for the electronics and actuators is provided by solar panels. Data communication and control is established in real-time using the Iridium satellite system through a user-friendly web interface. The technology is commercially available through Offshore Sensing AS. 

 
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Sailbouy model eDNA

Worldwide Sailbuoy missions

From Transatlantic crossings, Faroes Island and Svalbard research to monitoring and collecting data at Cape San Blas, marine ecology research in Sweden, and more. Take a look at the Sailbuoy missions here. 

transantlantic

Transatlantic crossing

The first Atlantic crossing by an unmanned surface vehicle.

The SB Met has made it across as the first ever unmanned surface vehicle to complete an Atlantic crossing.

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Faroes (1)

Faroes Mission

The Nansen Center conducted this research mission. The Sailbuoy was to keep a specified distance from the ice edge (around 40 km). As the ice edge moved, the Sailbuoy's waypoint was updated to follow the ice. 

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Offshore sensing Missions card (400 x 300 px)

North sea mission

Offshore Sensing conducted this mission in the summer of 2016. The mission objective of the SailBuoy was to investigate the Sailbuoy's performance as a wave buoy in summer conditions. 

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