Areté has assembled a diverse engineering team, the Prototype Design, Development and Demonstration (PD3) group to provide the company a rapid sensor development path capability. PD3 includes a multidisciplinary team of optical, mechanical, computer, electrical, and test engineers with expertise that spans the development process from design concept to field demonstration. By combining engineering rigor with scientific principles, the group has established Areté Associates as a world leader in the development and deployment of underwater sensors to measure oceanic parameters. The developed systems have been directed at both military and scientific applications and designed for use on a variety of platforms. Areté-developed sensors range from long-term deployable for high-end, deep ocean applications to low-priced, expendable sensors.
The platforms Areté systems have been deployed on include manned and unmanned submarine vehicles, ship-mounted and ship-borne towed bodies (including vertical arrays), mooring attachments, drifters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ice flows, and surf-zone deployable sleds.
The group also manages and operates a state-of-the-art optics calibration facility and provides
Field Testing support for scientific experiments and system performance assessment trials pursued by the rest of the company.