Waterloo-based 2G Robotics is gaining worldwide exposure after helping in this week’s salvage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy.
Monday was a huge win for the 20-month project as the salvage crew finally got the massive, partially submerged ship upright. It crashed into a reef off the small island of Giglio in early 2012, killing 32 people.
The engineers and salvage team based their decisions on scans provided by 2G Robotics’ underwater scanners, which were developed specifically for this operation, said Jason Gillham, the company’s CEO.
Gillham credited the resource-rich Waterloo Region tech community for helping his six-year-old company become one of a handful in the world capable of contributing to such a major and complicated salvage operation.
“Having access to Communitech and the other resources within the Waterloo Region has been a huge asset to get us to this stage,” Gillham said. “Without having access to those resources, we wouldn’t have been able to assist in this sort of operation, and to be able to take advantage of local resources has put us in good stead.”
Read more about the raising of the Costa Concordia here.
