Sailing seas of data: startup charts autonomous oceanic monitoring

The startup’s nautical data collection technology has tracked hurricanes up close in the North Atlantic, discovered a 3,200-foot underwater mountain in the Pacific Ocean and begun to help map the entirety of the world’s ocean floor.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company develops autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) that carry a wide range of sensors. Its data streams are processed on NVIDIA Jetson modules for AI at the edge and are being optimised in prototypes with the NVIDIA DeepStream software development kit for intelligent video analytics.

Saildrone is seeking to make ocean intelligence collection cost-effective, offering data-gathering systems for science, fisheries, weather forecasting, ocean mapping and maritime security.

It has three different USVs, and its Mission Portal control center service is used for monitoring customised missions and visualising data in near real time. Also, some of Saildrone’s historical data is freely available to the public.

“We’ve sailed into three major hurricanes, and right through the eye of Hurricane Sam, and all the vehicles came out the other side — they are pretty robust platforms,” said Blythe Towal, vice president of software engineering at Saildrone, referring to a powerful cyclone that threatened Bermuda in 2021.

Saildrone, founded in 2012, has raised $190 million in funding. The startup is a member of NVIDIA Inception, a program that provides companies with technology support and AI platforms guidance.