DARPA Grant Accelerates AUV Commercialization

By Caroline Rees / 01 Feb 2022
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Dive-Technologies

Dive Technologies, Inc. has received a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI). The goal of the EEI is to accelerate Dive Technologies’ DARPA funded transformational innovations for dual-impact defense and commercial subsea technologies, products and capabilities. 

This prestigious DARPA EEI award, in partnership with IQT Emerge, advances Dive’s recruitment of top entrepreneurs, funding, deep commercialization strategies, and connections for Dive’s commercial growth through Dive’s Robot-as-a-Service fleet and Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) sales.

“The technologies being developed at Dive demonstrate great utility across the defense and commercial markets,” says Simon Davidson, EVP at IQT Emerge. “We are excited to see how this collaboration will help accelerate the progression of innovative technologies, like AUVs, to market.”

In April 2021, Dive Technologies launched the DIVE-LD commercial AUV in a Robot-as-a-Service model which has been pursued and contracted by defense and commercial customers for seafloor data collection. Amongst others, the U.S. Navy, DARPA, and other government customers have partnered with Dive to fulfill challenging seafloor data acquisition needs. The pier-launched, long range, 6,000m depth rated DIVE-LD is ideal for commercial operations including oil and gas pipeline inspections and offshore wind cable route and pre-construction surveys.

“Since the beginning, we have always been hyper-focused on delivering the most reliable, flexible, and technologically advanced AUV that could tackle the extremely challenging industry demands of seabed survey,” said Sam Russo, Co-Founder and CSO, Dive Technologies. “This grant, and the ability to work more closely with DARPA and EEI, will accelerate our ability to grow as an organization, scale our business and technology, and deliver something truly game changing to the defense and commercial markets.”

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Posted by Caroline Rees Caroline co-founded Unmanned Systems Technology and has been at the forefront of the business ever since. With a Masters Degree in marketing Caroline has her finger on the pulse of all things unmanned and is committed to showcasing the very latest in unmanned technical innovation. Connect & Contact