Founded in 2010, RTSYS is a French company specializing in underwater acoustics (passive and active) and autonomous underwater vehicles. The company is part of the SEAFIN group, which has more than 30 years of experience in supplying equipment for the maritime and naval industry.
Located near the ocean, RTSYS has a sea trial base and two boats, allowing complete independence for in-situ tests and customer demonstrations. Focused on technology, the company employs forty (40) people, including more than twenty (20) qualified engineers and PhD.
With its network of distributors and a permanent office based in Singapore, RTsys’ international presence now represents more than 80% of its turnover.
We at CIO Look caught up with Pierre-Alexandre CAUX , the Business Director of RTsys, to learn more about the company and its contribution to enhancing the underwater acoustic field.
The Prime Business Sectors
RTsys is continuously enhancing the underwater acoustic field with its unique technological innovations and constant R&D investments, which also extend to developing advanced acoustic panels for walls. This high level of expertise is now recognized in the four following sectors of innovation: PAM (Passive Acoustic Monitoring), Underwater Exploration with AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles), ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare), and MCM (Mine-Counter Measures).
RTSYS is growing steadily and now relies on these four business sectors.
- PAM: Passive Acoustic Monitoring
RTSYS is a world leader in underwater multiparameters buoys and acoustic recorders dedicated mainly to science and renewable industry.
RTSYS PAM solutions obtain valuable data on underwater areas, either by real-time assessment or post-processing analysis in both acoustics and multi parameters monitoring.
- AUV: Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
RTsys Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are the best turnkey solutions for military, commercial and scientific applications to perform a wide range of missions, from bathymetry and seabed surveys to Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) detection.
- ASW: Anti-Submarine Warfare
RTsys is a world leader in the design and manufacture of autonomous targets dedicated to sonar operator training, multi ASW asset training, and torpedo firing exercises.
RTsys expertise is also well known for its capabilities in acoustic system performance’s Check & Measurement.
- MCM: Mine-Counter Measures
RTSYS provides to EOD Divers and Special Forces a complete range of AUVs and diver-held navigation and sonar systems for mine localization, detection, classification, and neutralization.
The RTSYS range has been upgrading divers’efficiency and safety during MCM Operations worldwide.
Developing Innovative Solutions
Pierre-Alexandre Caux mentions that acoustic monitoring devices have been an important activity since the company’s creation (buoys, recorders), however a decade of R&D linked to a close collaboration continuously maintained with the French Navy have also enabled the development of innovative solutions for operator’s training in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and handheld sonar systems for EOD divers and special forces (MCM).
Finally, a complete range of light AUVs, easy to deploy by one or two people complete the range and have been successfully used worldwide for both applications: civil (universities, EMR, and offshore O&G) and Defense.
These high added value products offered new opportunities and markets. Nowadays, RTsys products are field-proven equipment validated by a significant number of leading Navies internationally.
Providing Trustworthy Technology-based Solutions
According to Pierre-Alexandre, customers trust RTsys’ technology-based solutions on real-time tracking and live repositioning, giving its AUVs accuracy at less than 5m constant, independent of the distance covered.
Dealing with Challenges with Forethought
Talking about the impact of the pandemic, Pierre-Alexandre states that it is significant on the automotive sector and related market as most of the end-users (both in civil and defense) want to see a live demonstration before investing in AUVs. And the global lockdown put on hold many actions in process for almost two years. Hopefully the wide network of RTsys’ distributors assisted very much to stay in contact locally with each prospects and customers.
In terms of current supplies, RTsys sees a major issue to get electronic supplies mainly. Hopefully, RTsys anticipated as much as possible by having stock.
As far as Pierre-Alexandre is concerned, the future of automotive does not seem to be in link with the Covid-19 pandemic. In his opinion, important technological milestones are not related to the pandemic, but mainly on AUV data enhancement like ATR (Automatic Recognition Target), Swarm capabilities, and more compact vehicles, with controlled costs of investment.
Also to notice that RTsys is really proud because some of its employees working in its engineering team have helped in the design and manufacture of a respirator dedicated to the treatment of COVID-19 and adapted to the needs of resuscitators !
Being in Capacity of Absorbing the Growth
RTsys is a fast-growing company, with a turnover increase of more than 20% every year. With its own investments and willingness to strengthen its position as one of the world leaders in underwater acoustics and drones, the company expects to continue its growth within the next 5 years.
The move to a new facility of 1350m² confirms the willingness of RTsys to be in capacity of absorbing the growth, in terms of both, increase in manufacture and number of employees.
