GMV has signed a sponsorship agreement with Robdos Team, made up by a multi-discipline group of engineers (naval, industrial, software..) who have developing their own autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) since 2014 with the idea of competing in the EU-brokered EurAthlon 2017 challenge.

This sponsorship agreement reinforces GMV’s marine robotics activities, which kicked off back in 2005 with the development of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) managed by remote control in accordance with the original remit. Marine robotics has by now become a routine tool for underwater exploration, inspection and handling tasks, and business opportunities have been growing at a brisk rate since the seventies.

The marine environment, furthermore, is extremely inaccessible, remote and changeful so it acts an ideal testbed for demonstrating GMV’s advanced autonomous solutions. This has also been one of the driving forces prompting it to support this underwater robot R&D initiative, stemming from the Higher Naval Engineers’ School (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Navales: ETSIN).

Juan Carlos Llorente, GMV's head of robotics business development, together with the Robdos Team