Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) recently made an equity investment in local tech startup Oceanic Constellations (OC) through a third-party allotment of new shares.
NYK expects the funds from this investment will support OC’s efforts to establish a mass-production framework for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), among other initiatives.
OC aims to establish a mass-production framework for USVs within the next few years.
NYK said the large-scale production and social implementation of USVs will enable the creation of new marine infrastructure for a range of applications such as ocean surveillance, disaster prevention, and communications, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of the entire maritime industry.
In addition to its USV technologies, OC possesses capabilities in integrated environmental simulation technologies that realistically reproduce the marine environment, which NYK said is essential for USV operations.
These technologies can also be used to verify feasibility and improve accuracy in developing an offshore recovery system for reusable rockets, a project for which NYK has been selected under the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s space strategy fund initiative.