Under this OT agreement, Sea Machines will engineer, build and demonstrate ready-to-deploy system kits that enable autonomous, self-propelled operation of opportunistically available barges to land and replenish military aircraft. The kits will include Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous-command and control systems, barge propulsion, sensing, positioning, communications and refueling equipment, as well as items required for global deployment. Each modular kit will meet U.S. Navy criteria and will be in compliance with classifications and regulations from the DOD’s aviation bodies.

The contract includes a concept demonstration phase, with an option for following phases to deploy SM300 Operational Kits. The live concept demonstration is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020, in Washington state, for which Sea Machines has teamed with FOSS Maritime, a leading maritime transportation and logistics provider based in Seattle. FOSS will provide naval architecture, support engineering and operations management to outfit a remotely commanded deck barge to land helicopters and host a scaled fueling station for aircraft, surface vessels and shore replenishment. Using the SM300, shoreside operators will have remote situational awareness and will be able to demonstrate the capabilities of remote command and control of the vessel, her operating systems and flight deck.

Sea Machines is the prime contractor for the multi-year contract and is working closely alongside FOSS Maritime and other significant industry leaders, including Huntington Ingalls, America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services, based in Newport News, Va., and Bell Flight, a producer of commercial and military, vertical-lift aircraft, based in Fort Worth, Texas, to ensure a successful demonstration.

“The AMPP autonomous replenishment systems will solve critical logistics challenges of expeditionary missions. We are pleased to enable this innovative capability, which will increase the effectiveness and flexibility for the U.S. military,” said Sea Machines’ Phil Bourque, director, sales. “With Sea Machines systems already working off the waters of four continents, this project is well suited for us and one that we look forward to delivering on for the U.S. Government.”

“Foss is excited about this new opportunity with Sea Machines. This contract has led to discussions with Sea Machines in a number of other areas where their expertise can help Foss, including bringing more technology to our tug fleet. What they are doing in automation is very interesting and that technology could help our mariners and our vessels safety,” said Foss’ Will Roberts, chief operating officer.

DIU’s work is part of the DOD’s Resilient Expeditionary Agile Littoral Logistics (REALL) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) project. Funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Research & Engineering, the JCTD Program addresses Combatant Command (CCMD) and Joint warfighting gaps through prototyping and demonstration of innovative and game-changing technologies. The following offices are involved with defining performance requirements and developing capabilities for REALL: U.S. Central Command, U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, Army Engineer Research and Development Center, and the Naval Aviation Warfare Center – Lakehurst.

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston and operating globally, Sea Machines is the leader in pioneering autonomous command and control and advanced perception systems for the marine industries. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, which increases the safety, efficiency and performance of ships, workboats and commercial passenger vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.

About FOSS Maritime
Foss is a full-service maritime company focused on solving customers’ toughest marine transportation and logistical challenges—close to home and in some of the harshest environments in the world. Along with its subsidiaries and sister companies we have the expertise to support any industry requiring marine transportation services, project management or logistics, helping to handle all of the details from one-time ship assist jobs in local harbors to major multi-year projects across the globe.

About Huntington Ingalls
Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII’s Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit www.huntingtoningalls.com.

About Bell Flight
Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas – as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Textron Inc. Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Arctic Cat, Textron Systems, and TRU Simulation + Training. For more information, visit: www.textron.com.

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GCaptain published an article highlighting the huge growth the autonomous marine technology market is experiencing as a result of COVID-19. Key points include:

• While the maritime world struggles with COVID-19, one industry segment continues to grow at a rapid pace: Marine Autonomy. With companies like the MIT startup, Blksail completing autonomous trials remotely, autonomous inland shipping companies like ZULU Associates preparing to enter the New York market, and larger scaleups like Sea Machines closing large strategic investment deals, the rapid growth of autonomous solution providers is impressive.

• The U.S. Navy and the NOAA has also made rapid progress in vessel autonomy by signing a new agreement to jointly expand the development and operations of unmanned maritime systems in the nation’s coastal and world’s ocean waters.

• One reason for the growth in autonomous solutions is a large number of mariners unable to sign off ships because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. While smarter ships might help with these problems, many of the deals we are seeing today are not positioned to replace commercial mariners.

In summary, the article states: It is unclear how the broader industry will perform in the post-coronavirus world but it is clear that marine autonomy will play a large and critically important role.

Read the full story here.

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As the Navy continues its pursuit of unmanned vehicles, Huntington Ingalls Industries hopes to harness its experience building the service’s largest platforms to expand naval capability in the unmanned realm.

After purchasing a company that builds unmanned undersea vehicles earlier this year, HII last month announced an investment in Sea Machines Robotics, a company located in Boston, Mass. that focuses on software for the unmanned surface vehicle market.

Andy Green, HII Technical Solutions group president, said the latest investment will allow the company to respond to the Navy’s requests and help the service learn more about the new unmanned technologies it plans to use.

“Unmanned vehicles – whether surface or sub-surface – they extend the reach and act as a multiplier of existing platforms for, whether it’s [the] United States Navy or one of our allies, it provides significant extension of those platforms’ capabilities, regardless of the specific mission the platform’s being used for,” Green told USNI News in a recent interview.

The former submariner billed unmanned platforms as a way for the Navy to supplement legacy platforms like amphibious ships and combatants with new technology.

“They’re essentially augmenting the larger combatant platforms that are out there, whether you’re talking about submarines or DDGs, or amphibs,” he said of the unmanned surface vehicles.

Green described the Sea Machines investment as a “logical extension” of what HII delivers to the Navy.

“Sea Machines brings a set of capabilities to the table that we believe has a lot of potential in the USV market, which is why we got involved with them,” he told USNI News. “But there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle. When you talk about the different technologies, because they go into UUVs and USVs, the autonomy software is just one piece of that.”

“When you say autonomy, there’s a lot of subsets of autonomy that you got to think about, whether you’re thinking about controlling propulsion, you’re controlling steering and navigation, etc, or your control of whatever devices and sensors that you’ve got onboard,” he continued.

In a press release announcing the investment from HII, Sea Machines defined its autonomous control system as one that “works under the command of a human operator” and “boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents.”

HII first launched into the unmanned market in early 2015, when the company disclosed its purchase of The Columbia Group’s Engineering Solutions Division, which built the Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle known as Proteus. Then, earlier this year, HII reached a $350 million deal with Kongsberg to purchase Hydroid, which builds unmanned underwater vehicles.

HII also joined Boeing in a collaborative bid for the Navy’s Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle, for which Boeing received a $43 million contract to build four vessels in February 2019.

The most recent investment from HII in the unmanned surface vehicle arena comes as the Navy works to determine how unmanned vehicles will fit into its future fleet architecture. Last year, the Navy stood up Surface Development Squadron 1 (SURFDEVRON) to cultivate the service’s concepts of operations for unmanned vehicles. SURFDEVRON is using the Navy’s Sea Hunter, a medium unmanned surface vehicle born out of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency endeavor, to experiment with the CONOPS.

But the pursuit of unmanned platforms has hit roadblocks in Congress, as lawmakers express skepticism over the Navy’s approach and suggest the service is moving too quickly on technology it has yet to test. House and Senate authorizers in drafting the fiscal year 2021 defense policy bills sought to increase oversight of the Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle program.

Green said that HII, due to its history building platforms from aircraft carriers to submarines, is in a unique position to help the Navy. HII is the only contractor that builds the service’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The company also builds amphibious assault ships, amphibious transport dock vessels, and destroyers.

“When you think about how we can leverage unmanned systems technology in our existing platforms . . . because we make all those platforms . . . we have the ability to, as these technologies develop, to do technology insertion, to work with our program folks on the larger programs . . . and see where we can insert those technologies — see where we can leverage all of our many many decades of experience in building maritime platforms and undersea platforms — leverage that in developing technology that’s going to take UUVs and USVs to that next stage,” he said.

Sea Machines’ A.I.-powered advanced perception system gives commercial vessel operators enhanced situational awareness via obstacle detection, collision avoidance and environment-understanding capabilities for increased safety, predictability and productivity on the water.

One way HII can help the Navy, according to Green, is by discovering “creative ways” the service could employ autonomous technology, or launch and recover unmanned platforms.

“Everybody is sort of trying to feel out this space and figure out how it’s going to evolve and how the CONOPS are going to evolve, etc. and I think being there, at the table, partnered with the Navy across all platforms certainly puts us in a good position to help them out,” Green said. “And if we can continue producing these platforms, making sure that the costs are as controlled as possible — keep these programs as affordable as possible — while giving them what they need in terms of capability and bringing them good ideas maybe that they hadn’t thought of on how to use these things, then I think we’ll all be in a good position.”

By investing in both the unmanned undersea and surface vehicle areas, Green said HII can support the Navy with the interoperability and integration the service will require as it grows its unmanned arsenal.

“I think the more that we can invest in and demonstrate that we can weave these technologies together across the UUV space and the USV space, I think the better it is for the Navy,” Green said. “Because the more commonality they have across their programs and the better these vehicles can communicate, not only with manned platforms, whether it be sub-sea, surface or air, but also communicate with other unmanned platforms – sub-sea, surface and air — it’s going to be helpful to them.”

Top photo: Artist’s conception of the Boeing and HII Orca XLUUV. (Boeing image)

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Boston-based vessel autonomy startup Sea Machines is making waves with its advanced remote-control and autonomous operation technology. It recently completed a successful Series B venture capital fundraising round with participation from some of the biggest names in the sector, including top naval shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries. Founder and CEO Michael G. Johnson recently discussed how his company is modernizing the commercial marine industry.

Q: Sea Machines announced that it has raised $15 million in funding. Explain the significance of this and what it means for the company and greater maritime community?

The funds we were able to raise in this latest round are going to significantly impact Sea Machines, and therefore the maritime and marine industries as a whole. The funds will be put to use to further strengthen our technical development team as well as build out our next level of systems manufacturing and scale our operations group to support customer deployments.  We will also be investing in some supporting technologies to speed our course to full dock-to-dock, over-the-horizon autonomy. The purpose of our technology is to optimize vessel operations with increased performance, productivity, predictability and ultimately safety.

Q: Was fundraising much more challenging this time around, considering our pandemic-induced recession? 

On the whole, no. Raising capital is not meant to be easy but it’s safe to say that this round was simpler than previous raises. Because of where we are as a company, we have been proving our ability to retool the marine industry with our technology, and therefore we are delivering confidence to investors. We were forced to conduct the entire process by video conference, which may have increased overall efficiency of the raise as these rounds traditionally require thousands if not tens of thousands of miles of travel for face-to-face meetings, diligence, and handshakes.

Remote pitches also proved to be an advantage because it allowed us to showcase our technology in a more direct way. We did online demos where we had our team remotely connected to our vessels off Boston Harbor. We were really able to get the investors into a captain’s chair, as if they were remotely commanding a vessel in real-world operations. That worked out well.

Sea Machines’ remote command station in Boston

Q: Tell us a little about your partnership with Huntington Ingalls (HII), America’s largest shipbuilder. 

We are especially excited to be partnering with Huntington Ingalls in this round. What’s not to love about partnering with the builder of the SS United States, USS Enterprise and so many other amazing ships? HII is a solid and diversified company and as you know the leading capital ship supplier to the U.S. Navy. HII is a top choice partner for a growing marine autonomy company. They are more than a shipbuilder, also now leading in underwater autonomous systems, and they have a technical solutions group comprised of more than 6,000 personnel. The partnership gives us a supporting company to help us better serve U.S. government customers, a first-hand understanding of the technical needs of the U.S. Navy, and access to HII’s strengths in technical areas that are necessary to support autonomous operations, such as cybersecurity and modern HM&E. HII also lives and represents a social conscience that matches with modern society and our commitment to social responsibility.

Q: Sea Machines seems to have developed a strong foothold in the government industry with this announcement. Is that where you see your niche?

The government is an important and critical part of our growth strategy, but it’s just one piece. We also have a heavy emphasis on the task-driven workboat sector – marine survey, spill, fire, search-and-rescue, aquaculture and other boats – as well as the transit-driven maritime and passenger vessel sectors. Our autonomy can be used onboard as an advanced pilot assist system with a crew or provide remote command of a vessel.

Q: Which sectors seem to be the early adopters of marine autonomy?

It’s coming at us quickly.  The defense and task-driven workboat sectors are the first adopters, commercial passenger and shipping are now in the early stage of innovation trials.

The areas of value provided by autonomous technology overlaps for all sectors, however, for the navy, new on-water capabilities and unmanned vessels are a leading driver, whereas commercial is looking for increased productivity, efficiency and predictable operations. Our systems meet all of these needs. Our technology is designed to be installed on new vessels as well as existing vessels. Our ability to upgrade existing fleets greatly reduces the time and cost to leverage the value of our autonomous systems.  It definitely speeds up the adoption of the technology.

Sea Machines’ autonomous workboat, Lightning, a 29-foot vessel now being offered through Metal Shark’s “Sharktech” autonomous division

Q: Can you provide us with the latest on your technology development?

This month we are releasing software version 1.6 on our SM300. That’s six significant updates in 18 months, each one providing increased technical hardening and new base features and applicative features for specific workboat sectors. In January, we announced the receipt of ABS and USCG approval for our SM200 wireless helm and control systems on a major class of U.S.-flag articulated tug-barges (ATBs), the first unit has been installed and is in operation and we look forward to announcing details around it.  We will be taking the SM200 forward into the type-approval process.

Sea Machines has also begun serving the survey vessel market with the first announced collaboration with DEEP BV in the Netherlands; the vessel outfitted with the SM300 will be entering survey service within the month. In the second half of 2020 we are also commencing onboard collaborations with some crew-transfer vessel (CTV) operators serving the wind farm industry.

Q: In closing, what does the future look like for Sea Machines and our industry, with your systems on the market?

Being in our fifth year we have a good sense of what the industry needs and where it’s going. Sea Machines systems are already at work off the waters of four continents. Today we install systems on one or two vessels at a time and within a couple years it will be entire customer fleets at a swoop. To meet this demand, we are expanding our teams in Boston and Hamburg. We also recently opened an office in the Esberg, Denmark, to better serve the many forward-looking customers of that region.

The marine industries are a critically significant component of the global economy and it’s up to us within to keep it strong and relevant. Along with people, processes and capital, pressing the bounds of technology is a key driver. The world is being revolutionized by intelligent and autonomous self-piloting technology and today we find ourselves just beyond the starting line of a busy road to broad adoption through all marine sectors. If Sea Machines continues to chart the course with forward-looking pertinence then you will see us rise up to become one of the most significant companies and brands serving the industry in the 21st century.

Top photo: Sea Machines’ A.I.-powered advanced perception system gives commercial vessel operators enhanced situational awareness via obstacle detection, collision avoidance and environment-understanding capabilities for increased safety, predictability and productivity on the water. 

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(BOSTON; July 22, 2020) – Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics, a leading developer of autonomous systems for ocean-going vessels and workboats, announced today that it has closed a new $15 million financing round with significant participation by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services. This investment in Sea Machines marks one of the largest venture rounds for an advanced technology company serving the marine and maritime industries.

The strategic investment and associated partnership with HII will accelerate the deployment of self-piloting technologies in the rising market of unmanned naval boats and ships and is a continuation of HII’s expansion in the rapidly growing autonomous and unmanned maritime systems industry.

“This reinforces Sea Machines’ position as the leading developer of autonomous navigation and wireless vessel control systems,” said Michael G. Johnson, CEO, Sea Machines. “Our ability to secure significant financing during a challenging economic environment is an indicator of investors’ confidence in our ability to reshape and retool the marine industries with modern-day, advanced technologies. And being selected as technology partner by HII, a leader in every right, further affirms our course in product and market approach.”

“This investment represents our commitment to advanced innovation and competencies across the unmanned systems market,” said Andy Green, executive vice president and president of technical solutions, HII. “Sea Machines is making significant strides in the unmanned surface vessel (USV) industry. We want to invest in their growth and continue to form complementary partnerships across this key domain.”

Sea Machines’ autonomous systems serve the modern mariner. They markedly increase productivity of vessel operations by assuming active domain perception and navigation duties. A Sea Machines system works under the command of a human operator and, by taking on the long duration and often repetitive control duties, it boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents. The technology also enables new capabilities on water, such as the onshore command of remote offshore vessels.

“We are entering a phase of growth and universal interest like what was witnessed in the self-driving automotive space starting five years ago, but the difference being that marine self-piloting systems are already operationally deployed. We expect to see broad adoption of autonomous technology on water ahead of that on roads,” said Johnson.

Since launching its first family of products in late 2018, Sea Machines has deployed systems on vessels serving a multitude of sectors. From large cargo vessels (such as the previously disclosed program with A.P. Moller-Maersk) to U.S.-flag ATBs and data-collecting survey boats, oil-spill response craft, search-and-rescue (SAR), patrol and crew transfer vessels. Sea Machines systems are now operating in four of the world’s eight geographical regions and this reach is enabled through a dealer-partner program with established marine electronics integrators.

This investment round was led by Accomplice with further participation by Toyota AI Ventures, Brunswick Corp. (through investment partner TechNexus), Geekdom Fund, NextGen Venture Partners, Eniac VC, LaunchCapital and others.

“Five percent of global GDP is directly fueled by the marine economy and the industry is poised for technology innovation,” said Ryan Moore, partner, Accomplice. “Michael and the Sea Machines team have achieved significant progress and this financing underscores our strong position.”

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston and operating globally, Sea Machines is the leader in pioneering autonomous control and advanced perception systems for the marine industries. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, which increases the safety, efficiency and performance of ships, workboats and commercial vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.

Huntington Ingalls Industries
Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII’s Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: www.huntingtoningalls.com.

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MARINE AUTONOMY IS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY FLEETS

SEA MACHINES AUTONOMOUS MARINE TECHNOLOGY ENABLES GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY VESSELS TO DO MORE WITH LESS FOR MANY TYPES OF MISSIONS.

 

In this “Marine Autonomy is a Competitive Advantage for Government and Military Fleets” article, learn how Sea Machines products enable surface vessels to do more with less, at reduced risk and cost, for a wide variety of missions. The article also shares the most-common use cases for autonomy, and how it can deliver greater performance when lives, progress and freedom are on the line. 

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Leaders within the government and military are recognizing that autonomous marine technology offers a major competitive advantage for national security and defense; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR); rescue and relief efforts; and environmental research. At a time when budgets are lean, the ability to operate military and government vessels in autonomous, semi-autonomous and unmanned modes means units can do more with less, at reduced risk and cost, for a wide variety of missions.

The following outlines several of the most-common use cases for autonomy, and how it can deliver greater performance when lives, progress and freedom are on the line.

Defense, Surveillance and Security

For branches charged with defense of people, assets or borders, marine autonomy enables surface vessels to operate with increased productivity, predictability and safety via pre-programmed vessel movements and navigation plans. Autonomous marine technology lets a single, shore-based operator command and control an entire unmanned fleet of vessels and create tactical advantages. These fleets can be programmed to work collaboratively in covering large surveillance areas in less time.

The escorting of ships carrying high-value cargo is also made more efficient and effective, as autonomous security boats can be programmed to match the speed and course of the assets to which they’re assigned.

Offshore and long perimeters can be defended via a fleet of unmanned patrol boats, which don’t require shift changes, stop-work periods or long crew transit times.

Obstacle detection and avoidance capabilities reduce risk of collisions and enable automatic re-routing around a hazard or target before safely resuming the planned course.

Because autonomous marine technology integrates with common situational awareness tools and systems – such as radar, AIS, GPS and non-emitting sensors – autonomous defense vessels can execute missions with little to no human intervention, and with increased situational awareness. Sensor fusion offers advantages in the Identification of Friend or Foe (IFF) because recognized objects are paired with marine traffic data. In the case of an encroaching vessel, this match-up provides a target’s name and flag, speed, course and more to an on-board or on-shore operator, enabling faster classification of the approaching object as safe, suspicious or a threat.

Remote payload control allows an off-site operator command of on-board equipment, such as cameras, cranes, launch stations, weapons and gear, antipiracy tools and more. Remotely operated sensors and cameras can be used to detect aerial, surface-level and sub-sea threats, which are critical for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW); interdictory operations; mine hunting; heat, chemical or nuclear detection; drug and human trafficking prevention; and more. From nearly any location, an operator can access this payload data and engage equipment to safely and successfully complete missions.

For special operations, minimally manned and unmanned marine operations allow for removal of military personnel from potential hostage situations. Unmanned drone boats can serve as diversions, allowing crewed boats to complete missions safely. In extreme cases, antipiracy equipment can be used aboard unmanned surface vessels (USVs), by off-site operators who can remotely control on-board cameras, sensors and security equipment, and can even delete sensitive on-board data and override controls. Ultimately, unmanned vessels can take on the most dangerous and unpleasant work, invaluably protecting the warfighter.

Read more about how autonomous marine technology enables patrol and security workboats.

ISR and Communications

ISR/Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) work is a significant undertaking by the government, and one that demands deep resources. Autonomous surface vessels can now add value by playing a critical role in ocean surveillance systems – which can include reconnaissance satellites, surveillance sub-sea vessels, underwater sensors and maritime patrol aircraft. A vital link to the assets above and below them, unmanned surface boats can be stationed long-term at sea to serve as the gateway of the communication chain that feeds branches critical and encrypted data. Autonomous boats do this much more predictably, cost effectively and without the need to staff a team at sea long-term.

Another challenge USVs can help to solve is energy reserves at sea. Autonomous vessels can be equipped to serve as a “floating battery,” providing enough power to connect stand-off vessels to SATCOMs.

In situations where traditional communications or GPS data has been compromised, unmanned vessels can serve as low-frequency Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNTs), providing situational awareness and stealth to other aerial, surface-level and underwater assets. For scenarios where GPS has been denied or jammed, USVs can act as a pseudo-lite for precision navigation reference.

Rescue and Relief

Autonomous marine assets can support rescue operations, expeditionary logistics and humanitarian relief efforts because they can deliver cargo, ammunition and personnel faster and more cost-effectively. For warfighters who are captured in hostile or remote areas, mission leaders can rapidly deploy unmanned surface vessels in support of their life-saving extractions. Entire fleets can also be programmed to collaboratively execute sweeping patterns to more productively search for downed planes or vessels in water.

Following disasters near coastal areas, an unmanned vessel stationed near shore can provide a signal to restore communications and connectivity. Autonomous surface vessels can also offer medical support by acting as efficient “floating hospitals.” A minimally crewed ship allows more room for medical staff and patients, and operates more predictably and safely.

Research and Environmental Assessments

For marine scientists and researchers, computerized route planning yields greater productivity and increased predictability – major advantages for sectors facing limited resources. Object detection and avoidance ensures data-optimized re-routing in seconds, so exploration can resume faster. Remote payload control means that unmanned research boats can collect more samples and data with greater accuracy and reduced cost. Elimination of on-board personnel when conditions are poor mitigates against missions being compromised by sea-sickness or human injury.

Read more about how autonomous marine technology aids hydrographic survey work.

Maximizing Mission Success, Reducing Effort and Cost

One of the most important advantages marine autonomy offers is its ability help prioritize manpower for the most important actions and decisions. Government and military divisions that capitalize on manned and unmanned teaming for marine operations can maximize productivity predictability and safety, while reducing risk and cost. Additionally, purposeful technology innovation is a critical pursuit for global leaders as they work to stay one step ahead of adversaries.

Sea Machines autonomous-command and remote-control technologies make all of this possible, without the need to build new, costly special-purpose autonomous vessels. Our products can be quickly installed aboard fleets to add an immediate increase in capability, productivity, predictability and safety for all types of government and military marine missions.

Read a list of the top capabilities Sea Machines autonomy adds to fleets here.

Ready to learn more about modernizing a military or government vessel fleet? Contact us:

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Marine Autonomy is a Competitive Advantage for Government and Military Fleets

Sea Machines autonomous marine technology enables government and military vessels to do more with less for many types of missions.

In this “Marine Autonomy is a Competitive Advantage for Government and Military Fleets” article, learn how Sea Machines products enable surface vessels to do more with less, at reduced risk and cost, for a wide variety of missions. The article also shares the most-common use cases for autonomy, and how it can deliver greater performance when lives, progress and freedom are on the line.

The post Meet with Sea Machines at Sea-Air-Space 2019 appeared first on Sea Machines Robotics.

If you plan to attend and would like to connect with a member of the Sea Machines team during the event, contact us here.

The SNA promotes communication among those in the military, business and academic communities who share a common interest in surface warfare. The organization provides forums on professional matters affecting surface naval forces and the United States Navy and Coast Guard. 

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