Skana Robotics, a Tel Aviv-based company founded in 2024, has announced the development of a groundbreaking capability for its fleet management software system, SeaSphere. This cutting-edge new technology allows large formations of mobile underwater vessels to coordinate and interact over long distances. It leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to increase operational efficiency. Earlier this year, the company came out of stealth mode. Now, it is aggressively settling itself into becoming the tool of choice for governments and corporations all over Europe.
SeaSphere’s latest innovation overcomes the biggest hurdle to collaborating in multi-domain, multi-vessel operations. Safe navigational communication between different vessels is vital in guaranteeing synchronized deployments especially when operating swarms or fleets of unmanned vessels. Even Idan Levy, co-founder and CEO of major player Skana Robotics, underscored the critical need for this technology, saying,
“Communication between vessels is one of the main challenges during the deployment of multi-domain, multi-vessel operations.”
This is something that the technology we’ve developed at Skana Robotics unlocks, allowing individual units within a fleet to autonomously adapt to new information. These vessels have an unprecedented ability to change their route or mission. They are never out of sync with the fleet’s big-picture operational contributions. This kind of capability is a missing and key ingredient to better, more data-informed decision-making in more complicated operational environments.
Teddy Lazebnik, an AI scientist and professor at the University of Haifa in Israel, is spearheading the research for this cutting edge. To develop the decision-making framework for SeaSphere, he took a back-to-the-future approach using more established, mathematically driven AI algorithms. He recognized the double-edged sword nature of the new algorithms, explaining that
“The new algorithms have two properties: they are more powerful, but as a result, are less predictable.”
This new direction holds incredible potential. It would enable us to understand better how to employ hundreds of these unmanned vessels in various operational environments.
Skana Robotics is currently in active negotiations on a large government contract. They plan to complete the transaction before year’s end. Additionally, if finalized, this $4 billion potential deal would make the company North America’s largest electric bus manufacturer and speed up bringing its technology to international markets.
The commercial version of SeaSphere is projected to be available commercially in 2026. In the meantime, though, Skana Robotics is still very much focused on proving the capabilities of their system at scale. Lazebnik expressed the company’s ambition, stating,
“We want to show we can use this in scale.”
Skana Robotics is changing the game with underwater communication and autonomous multi-vehicle fleet management. Their creative method increases safety and efficiency for the vessels that work within these sometimes treacherous conditions.