Motion Signal Technologies (MST) specialises in seismic analysis services and software and collaborated with University of Exeter staff on Deep Digital Cornwall (DDC).
Nature of intervention
This collaboration began in June 2021, and in January 2023 MST launched a brand new service called Compression at the Edge (CATE®).
The CATE technology compresses and transmits large volumes of seismic and acoustic data in real-time and targets data from Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) systems. DAS systems operate by transforming fibre-optic cables into tens of thousands of seismic sensors. Applications for seismic activity monitoring systems range across a number of important sectors e.g., geothermal energy sites, mining environments and infrastructure management for wind farms, railways and roads. However, the high data rates generated by DAS systems limits their applicability in many sectors. As such, the CATE technology makes existing DAS surveys more efficient, as well as making monitoring possible in settings where this was previously not the case.
Value of any grant support/project
To develop CATE, MST was awarded a 12-month £100k Research and Innovation Project and accessed a DDC ‘business assist’, i.e., knowledge exchange and consultancy from a DDC Impact Fellow, Laura Carter-Greaves, and a DDC University of Exeter academic, Dr Declan Vogt, to help develop the CATE project.
How the DDC connection occurred
Motion Signal Technologies connected with DDC through a mutual contact at AeroSpace Cornwall, further illustrating the positive collaborative nature of the research and innovation environment and networks in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
What the business assist/grant has achieved
Early stages of the MST project were set against Covid-19 lockdowns and impacts, however, DDC and MST worked together to ensure there was no material impact on the project. Indeed, despite these challenges, MST successfully delivered this complex research project, which included creation of multiple prototype devices as well as testing the technology in the field. Using a temporary fibre deployed in a well to process check shot data, MST was able to constrain sub surface velocities as well as test the CATE prototype. The result is a new-to-market data processing service through DDC support in an impressively short period of time!
Plans for the future
Building on these successes, MST plans to further develop processing services around the CATE device, as well as exploring the wide range of applications both in sub-surface analysis as well as infrastructure and asset monitoring. Keep a watch out for further developments on MST’s website (http://motionsignaltechnologies.com/).
