UUV Aquabotix Ltd has announced that the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (“JPL”) has placed an order for an unmanned underwater vehicle (underwater drone) with Aquabotix’s wholly-owned US subsidiary Aquabotix Technology Corporation.
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.
NASA’s JPL ordered Aquabotix’s Endura 300, a 300-metre depth-rated commercial-grade remotely operated vehicle (“ROV”), 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.
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.”
Aquabotix Endura is small in size, but powerful in execution, with an industry-leading 5 knots of thrust and a sturdy hydrodynamic design. Its six degrees freedom of motion allows users to fly through the water with intuitive controls.
Reference: aquabotix.com