27 8 月 2020

Case Study: Coral Reef Research Foundation has been Using Rugged Laptops to further Their Mission for over 14 Years

The Challenge

Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF) required a rugged mobile computing solution that could handle the unique challenges of an ocean-based research foundation: heat, sea air, saltwater, humidity and rough seas. They faced the additional challenge of having legacy hardware for monitoring that required serial ports, which was no longer available on most of today’s mobile computers. Being a research foundation, the CRRF also needed computing solutions that would be reliable and last since frequent replacement of hardware was not possible.

 

Ocean-Ready Solution

The team at CRRF purchased their  rst Durabook rugged laptop computer in 2006. Over the past 15 years, the team at Durabook has continued to work with CRRF to customize new rugged laptops to meet their unique and evolving needs.

  • 2006: Durabook Rugged Laptop Model N15RI – acquired for the CRRF marine lakes project and used for all purposes, including their Campbell Scientific weather station. Today it is used to operate a legacy ocean current meter.
  • 2008: Durabook Rugged Laptop Model D14RY – acquired for the Palau submersible project and now used for Campbell Scientific weather station and other instrument downloads.
  • 2009: Durabook Rugged Laptop Model D15TS –  acquired for the marine lakes project and used for all purposes, including their Campbell Scientific weather station. A D15TS was damaged in CRRF 2015 fire, and still works!
  • 2015: Durabook Rugged Laptop Model S15H – acquired for the marine lakes project and used for all purposes today, including their Campbell Scientific weather station, Onset water temperature and depth loggers, SeaBird CT instruments.
  • 2020: Durabook Rugged Laptop Model S15AB – acquired for the marine lakes project and used for all purposes today, including their Campbell Scientific weather station.

The Result

This D15TS was damaged in CRRF 2015 fire, and still works!

The Durabook rugged laptop computers have exceeded all of the performance and durability expectations that the CRRF had for their use. The CRRF team is still using the first Durabook N15 that they purchased back in 2006 – over 14 years later. And even the D15TS that was damaged in a fire still works. Durabook has continued to customize its laptops and ship new systems to the CRRF that meet the foundation’s changing needs. The Durabook rugged laptops have enabled the CRRF to further their mission of monitoring and acquiring the knowledge needed to understand and make intelligent decisions related to conservation, climate change, and resource management.

For Tom Wang, President of Durabook Americas Inc., the CRRF is more than a customer. He has had the privilege of diving at Jelly sh Lake and Palau Blue Holes which has given him personal understanding of the importance of their work.

Download the whole case study here.

 

About the Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF)

The Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF) conducts original research to acquire the knowledge needed to understand and make intelligent decisions about conservation, climate change, and resource management. Based out of Palau in the tropical western Pacific, surrounded by diverse reefs of the western Pacific, CRRF has a waterfront marine research facility with lab space, accommodation, and three research boats. Their research programs are oriented towards 1) the dynamics of the marine environment as they relate to conservation decisions, 2) limits of species diversity, community distribution and biogeography, and 3) monitoring with respect to short to long-term environmental and climate changes. For more information, please visit https://coralreefpalau.org.