Oshen built the first ocean robot to collect data in a Category 5 hurricane

[highplainsdem]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/17/oshen-built-the-first-ocean-robot-to-collect-data-in-a-category-5-hurricane/

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The company caught the attention of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) two years ago, but Laverack said that their tech just wasn’t ready to be deployed reliably yet. The organization reached back out two months before the 2025 hurricane season after Oshen had successfully deployed the robots into winter storms in the U.K. This time, Oshen jumped at the chance and quickly built and sent over 15 C-Stars.

Five of these C-Stars were thrown overboard and made their way into position by the U.S. Virgin Islands where NOAA predicted Hurricane Humberto was headed.

Laverack said they were expecting the bots to just collect data leading up to the storm, but instead, three of the bots were able to weather the entire storm — minus a few missing parts — and collected data the whole time, becoming, she says, the first ocean robot to collect data through a Category 5 hurricane.

Now, the company has moved to a hub for marine tech companies in Plymouth, England, and has started racking up contracts with customers, including the U.K. government, for both weather and defense operations.

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Their website: https://www.oshendata.com

I hadn't heard of Oshen before, but I googled and found this article from October:

World-first: Surfboard-sized robot records live data inside Category 5 hurricane
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/tiny-ocean-robot-hurricane-data

The project is not just about endurance inside storms; it’s also about speed.

On September 27, the team rushed two C-Stars to the North Carolina coast to track Hurricane Imelda. The vessels were transported from Mississippi and deployed within 48 hours, highlighting how quickly these robots can be repositioned when storms shift paths.

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The data these vessels provide feed directly into NOAA’s Global Telecommunications System, where they can be used immediately by forecasters worldwide. Scientists say that wider use of fleets like C-Stars could be a game-changer for hurricane prediction.

For now, the fleet continues to sail across the Atlantic, chasing two of nature’s most powerful forces, wind and water, at their fiercest.

I love hearing about good uses of technology.