German tech firm completes at-sea trials of AUV fitted with AI-powered surveillance software

German defence technology company Helsing has completed at-sea trials of its AI-enabled underwater surveillance software fitted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).

The trials were carried out at the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) along the west coast of Scotland using a glider-type AUV developed by Helsing.

Helsing said that, over the summer, a three-month sprint was conducted, working with Blue Ocean MTS and QinetiQ as members of the Helsing maritime partnership announced in April.

The sprint started with an acoustic performance simulation, before moving onto in-water testing in a Scottish loch, and finally conducting multi-glider sea trials in late July at BUTEC.

Helsing said the trials successfully demonstrated the ability of the AUV and AI software combination to perform autonomous underwater surveillance operations using multiple gliders in the water, even in noisy maritime environments.

Helsing intends to place the AUVs into mass production and to have up to hundreds of the craft deployed for various mission, operating with the company's proprietary software platform and advanced AI system to autonomously detect, classify, and report threats at scale and in near real time.