Autonomy and Route Optimization Lead AI Research Boom
environment. It is used for solving problems involving sequential decision-making in changing or real-time environments.Looking ahead, the authors see the growing importance of Explainable AI (XAI) and digital twins for transparent and trustworthy deployment in safety-critical systems.Advancing artificial intelligence in ocean and maritime engineering: Trends, progress, and future directions was published in Ocean Engineering 339 (2025)
Geo Sessions 2025
Sessions brought together over 5,300 registrants from 159 countries, with attendees representing education, government agencies, consulting, and top geospatial companies like Esri, NOAA, Airbus, Planet, and USGS. At this year's Geo Sessions, NV5 is raising the bar with a focus on artificial intelligence, thermal imaging, and hyperspectral capabilities, technologies that are transforming how organizations see, understand, and act on geospatial data.“Last year’s sessions proved there’s a huge appetite for actionable geospatial knowledge,” said Dan Gruidel, Director
Spear AI Raises Funding to Apply AI to Submarine Data
A startup founded by U.S. Navy veterans aiming to help the U.S. military use artificial intelligence to decipher data gathered by submarines has raised its first round of outside capital.Washington-based Spear AI specializes in working with what is known as passive acoustic data, which is gathered by listening devices underwater. Its long-term aim is to use AI to help submarine operators understand whether an object heard could be a rain squall, a whale, or a vessel that could be a threat, and to detect where it is and how fast it is moving.The challenge is that most existing AI tools are trained
Greenroom Robotics Granted AUKUS Exemption for Autonomous Vessel Software
An Australian AI startup developing software for crewless boats said it has been granted one of the first AUKUS exemption licences by the Australian government, allowing it to share information with defence contractors in the U.S. and Britain.Defence officials have said Australia will rely more on autonomous systems to protect its vast coastline and up to 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million sq km) of northern ocean, even as it spends billions on nuclear-powered submarines.Australia, the United States and Britain removed significant barriers on defence trade in August through an exemption to the U.S.
Sea.AI Technology Supports European Initiative to Protect Whales
In the continuing effort to protect whales from deadly ship strikes, Sea.AI is collaborating with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) to support efforts under the European Union’s ATLANTIC WHALE DEAL project.Whales face increasing threats from ship collisions in busy maritime routes. The ATLANTIC WHALE DEAL brings together scientists, conservationists and technology experts from across Europe to tackle the problem.Sea.AI will provide its AI-powered machine vision technology which detects and classifies objects on the water’s surface. This technology
Subsea Inspection’s New Boss
IBM recently explained why AI orchestration is important: As AI systems grow more advanced, a single AI model or agent can be insufficient for handling complex tasks. Autonomous systems frequently struggle to collaborate because they are built across multiple clouds and applications, leading to siloed operations and inefficiencies.AI agent orchestration bridges these gaps, enabling multiple AI agents to work together efficiently and ensuring that sophisticated tasks are run seamlessly.In practice, AI agent orchestration functions like a digital symphony, says IBM.The concept is already being envisioned
Vatn Systems, Palantir Partner to Scale Manufacturing of AUVs for National Defense
Vatn Systems, a leading defense technology company building autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for the US military and allies, announced a strategic partnership with Palantir Technologies to further digitize and scale its manufacturing capabilities."Palantir's technology gives us real-time visibility into our operations, strengthening our ability to anticipate challenges, optimize resources, and deliver critical systems to our customers with unprecedented speed and precision," said Nelson Mills, co-founder and CEO of Vatn Systems.The partnership leverages Palantir's software
Fugro, Spoor Join Forces for AI Bird Monitoring for Offshore Wind Farms
Fugro and Spoor, a software company that helps renewable energy projects reduce their environmental impact, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a new bird-monitoring solution for offshore renewable energy projects.The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered system will not only help protect bird populations but also supports the growth of renewable energy by making environmental assessments more affordable, cleaner, and safer.The solution uses video cameras installed on Fugro’s SEAWATCH Wind Lidar and other metocean buoys to record bird activity at wind farm locations.
Cathx Ocean Unveils New INKA Camera
Offshore surveyors and operators have long faced the challenge of data bottlenecks, where vast amounts of raw subsea data require time-consuming post-mission processing, leading to delays and increased operational costs. Cathx Ocean is set to solve this problem with the launch of INKA Iris at UDT 2025.INKA is Cathx Ocean’s onboard hardware processing platform, designed to bring real-time AI-driven decision-making to subsea vehicles. Iris is the first camera built on the INKA platform, delivering imaging and onboard data processing in a compact, power-efficient package. Built on customer feedback
February 2025
