The SwarmDiver UUV is 75cm long and weighs 1.7kg. (Aquabotix)
The US Navy has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) manufacturer Aquabotix to demonstrate the company’s SwarmDiver UUV and other technologies.
SwarmDiver is a smart, small and easily deployable autonomous UUV which can work in a swarm of “dozens” of similar systems, creating a mechanical swarm. Each UUV is 75cm long and weighs 1.7kg, and can dive to a depth of 50m. The onboard battery gives the UUV an endurance of 2.5 hours.
The demonstration will be conducted at the Narragansett Bay Test Facility in Rhode Island, and no timeframe for the demonstration to occur has been given.
A video of the swarming UUV in action can be found here.
A still frame from the demonstration video shows a swarm of the UUVs surrounding a boat.