Nauticus Robotics Wins Contract with U.S. DIU for Autonomous Amphibious Robot

Nauticus Robotics, a developer of autonomous ocean robots and associated services, said Wednesday it had secured a second multi-million dollar contract with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (“DIU”) for the development of an amphibious unmanned system also utilizing the company’s autonomous command and control software platform, ToolKITT. 

This development follows Nauticus’ previous DIU award announcement on February 15, 2022, where ToolKITT is being utilized aboard the U.S. Navy’s Defender Mission Specialist remotely operated vehicle systems to advance the subsea vehicle with more autonomous behaviors. DIU is a Department of Defense organization that contracts with commercial companies to solve national security problems.

Nauticus developed its proprietary ToolKITT autonomy platform over years of internal investments and advancements sponsored by government agencies and commercial customers. ToolKITT is a unified software platform utilizing advances in machine learning to identify, classify, and perform complex underwater activities, which can be applied to remove, detect, identify, inspect, and neutralize hazards underwater. 

ToolKITT was specifically designed to enable autonomous actions across multiple robotics platforms and is also used in Nauticus’ flagship product, Aquanaut.

“We are thrilled with the additional work the DIU and the U.S. Marine Corps have awarded us to continue providing leading maritime robotics and autonomy solutions to assist the warfighter,” said Ed Tovar, Director of Business Development for Defense Systems at Nauticus. “We are humbled and honored to be doing our part to advance the usage of robotics and autonomous systems to remove servicemembers from harm’s way.”

This competitively awarded prototype project has the potential for follow-on production contracts without further competition, in accordance with §10 U.S.C. 2371b(f), and upon a determination that the prototype project has successfully been completed.