Huntington Ingalls Industries debuted the Proteus unmanned surface vessel (USV) for testing and development of autonomy capabilities. The 27-foot Proteus USV was outfitted with Sea Machines Robotics’ SM300 autonomy system and completed a successful demonstration off the coast of Panama City, Florida, on Friday, May 14. For the demonstration, HII’s Proteus USV was equipped with commercial perception sensors, including GPS, automatic identification system, depth transducer, radar and a camera enabling a 360-degree field of view. HII deployed a separate 51-foot dive boat during the demonstration to illustrate SM300 system’s off-the-shelf solution including its obstacle avoidance capability and adherence to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). The Proteus USV will enable HII’s continued development of autonomy capabilities and sensor fusion to support the evolving needs of both government and commercial customers. HII announced its minority share investment in Sea Machines in July 2020. Sea Machines’ SM300 system can be outfitted to ocean capable vessels of any size to enable scalable autonomy, from remotely controlled to fully autonomous vessel operations. Video credit: Huntington Ingalls Industries