Dive Technologies and Metron Announce Partnership to Commercialize Advanced Autonomy Software on DIVE-LD

Enables long-range, pier-launched, fully autonomous seabed surveys

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dive Technologies, Inc., a Boston-based subsea robotics designer and manufacturer, today announced a commercial partnership with Metron, Inc. This partnership will directly support the commercialization of Metron’s Autonomy, Navigation, Command & Control (ANCC) software suite on Dive Technologies’ large displacement autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the DIVE-LD. Initial sea testing of the DIVE-LD with ANCC software was completed in December 2020.

“The DIVE-LD is pier-launched and designed to stay at sea for up to ten days. The capability of Metron’s advanced autonomy technology is paramount to the AUV’s mission success,” says Bill Lebo, Co-Founder of Dive Technologies. “Metron’s ANCC suite is a critical enabler to the DIVE-LD’s success in long duration survey missions for our offshore oil and gas and wind customers where unplanned contingencies occur and mission failure is not an option.”

Metron’s advanced autonomy software system is based on nearly a decade of research and development focused on enabling long-duration underwater missions in complex and dynamic environments. Capabilities such as obstacle avoidance and dynamic mission replanning and re-tasking are enabled through internal simulations that allow the vehicle to play out potential future scenarios and make the best decisions leading to overall mission success.

“We’re excited to bring this partnership to life this spring as we embark on our first commercial survey jobs off the east coast,” continues Lebo.

“Metron is thrilled to bring our autonomy experience to the commercial market in partnership with Dive Technologies,” says Van Gurley, CEO of Metron. “Our capabilities for advanced, onboard decision-making combined with the DIVE-LD’s endurance and low cost creates a unique capability for clients. Our systems provide for the autonomous decision-making and dynamic onboard mission replanning that is necessary for reliable, long duration operations where mission failure would be costly and human intervention not always possible.”

About Dive Technologies: Founded in 2018, Dive Technologies designs, develops, and deploys premier autonomous underwater vehicles for large-scale commercial and defense data collection. Utilizing deep domain expertise, Dive Technologies is building highly scalable and flexible, fastest to the sea, and best-in-class AUV platforms that combine purpose-driven technology with an intuitive architecture to help customers rapidly and efficiently collect underwater data. For more information, please visit www.divetechnologies.com.

About Metron: Metron, Inc. has a 35 year history of developing innovative solutions to the most challenging technical problems through a rigorous first-principles problem-solving approach. Metron delivers creative, tailored solutions at the intersection of advanced mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering. Core capabilities in the advanced autonomy domain include sortie and mission planning software, physical systems modeling, mission and platform level modelling and simulation, and failure forecasting and mitigation in autonomous systems. For more information, please visit www.metsci.com.