<\/p>\n
Boston-based\u00a0Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous systems for ocean-going vessels and workboats, has closed a new $15 million financing round with significant participation by\u00a0Huntington Ingalls Industries\u00a0(HII), America\u2019s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services. <\/strong><\/p>\n This investment in Sea Machines marks one of the largest venture rounds for an advanced technology company serving the marine and maritime industries. <\/p>\n As explained, the strategic investment and associated partnership with HII will accelerate the deployment of self-piloting technologies in the rising market of unmanned naval boats and ships and is a continuation of HII\u2019s expansion in the rapidly growing autonomous and unmanned maritime systems industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cOur ability to secure significant financing during a challenging economic environment is an indicator of investors\u2019 confidence in our ability to reshape and retool the marine industries with modern-day, advanced technologies,”<\/em> Michael G. Johnson, <\/strong>CEO, Sea Machines, commented. <\/p>\n \u201cThis investment represents our commitment to advanced innovation and competencies across the unmanned systems market,\u201d<\/em> Andy Green<\/strong>, executive vice president and president of technical solutions, HII, said.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cSea Machines is making significant strides in the unmanned surface vessel (USV) industry. We want to invest in their growth and continue to form complementary partnerships across this key domain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sea Machines\u2019 autonomous systems increase productivity of vessel operations by assuming active domain perception and navigation duties. A Sea Machines\u00a0system works under the command of a human operator and,\u00a0by taking on the long duration and often repetitive control duties,\u00a0it boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents. The technology also enables new capabilities on water, such as the onshore command of remote offshore vessels.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are entering a phase of growth and universal interest like what was witnessed in the self-driving automotive space starting five years ago, but the difference being that marine self-piloting systems are already operationally deployed. We expect to see broad adoption of autonomous technology on water ahead of that on roads,\u201d<\/em> Johnson further said.<\/p>\n Since launching its first family of products in late 2018, Sea Machines has deployed systems on vessels serving a multitude of sectors, from large cargo vessels — such as the previously disclosed\u00a0program with A.P. Moller-<\/a>Maersk — to U.S.-flag ATBs and data-collecting survey boats, oil-spill response craft, search-and-rescue (SAR), patrol and crew transfer vessels. Sea Machines systems are now operating in four of the world\u2019s eight geographical regions and this reach is enabled through a dealer-partner program with established marine electronics integrators. \u00a0<\/p>\n The recent investment round was led by\u00a0Accomplice\u00a0with further participation by\u00a0Toyota AI\u00a0Ventures,\u00a0Brunswick Corp. (through investment partner\u00a0TechNexus),\u00a0Geekdom Fund,\u00a0NextGen Venture Partners,\u00a0Eniac VC,\u00a0LaunchCapital\u00a0and others.<\/p>\n \u201cFive percent of global GDP is directly fueled by the marine economy and the industry is poised for technology innovation,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Ryan Moore, <\/strong>partner,\u00a0Accomplice, pointed out.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael and the Sea Machines team have achieved significant progress and this financing underscores our strong position.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The post Sea Machines raises $15 million to speed up development of self-piloting technologies<\/a> appeared first on Offshore Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n world maritime news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Boston-based\u00a0Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous systems for ocean-going vessels and workboats, has closed a new $15 million financing round with significant participation by\u00a0Huntington Ingalls Industries\u00a0(HII), America\u2019s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services. This investment in Sea Machines marks one of the largest venture rounds for an advanced technology company …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1390,9260,1291,2298,997,9332,7889,136],"class_list":["post-14225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-development","tag-machines","tag-million","tag-raises","tag-sea","tag-selfpiloting","tag-speed","tag-technologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/14226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}