Underwater drone for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab

Aquabotix’s CEO, Durval Tavares, commented “We are proud of being able to provide NASA’s JPL with a vehicle that is fully configurable to their needs. Our team is working to integrate specialist sensors fit for purpose, which is made possible due to Aquabotix’s digital architecture.”

NASA’s JPL ordered Aquabotix’s Endura 300, a 300-metre depth-rated commercial-grade remotely operated vehicle, and will be integrated with a range of specialist sensors. NASA will use the vehicle in its Ocean Worlds exploration program to create multidimensional maps of oceanic environs. The NASA Ocean Worlds program is undertaking ocean exploration on Earth, in order to, among other things, assist NASA with its search for the best-known candidates for life in the solar system.

While the revenue from this order is not material, given the Company’s revenues, NASA’s order is significant in that it demonstrates that Aquabotix’s products are being utilised by one of the most discerning customers in the world, for complicated underwater missions. The Company is currently in a number of sales processes involving a wide range of end users and will update the market on material sales when they occur.

Based in Sydney, Australia and Fall River, Massachusetts, USA, Aquabotix is an established underwater robotics company which manufactures and sells commercial and industrial-grade underwater drones and networked underwater cameras for commercial, high-end consumer and military applications. It offers commercially-available hybrid underwater drones, which are capable of both autonomous and remote operation. The Company owns the intellectual property in a range of unmanned underwater vehicles and underwater camera products and describes itself as ‘an early-mover in a nascent industry’.

By Jake Frith