Gecko Robotics was awarded a $71 million contract by the U.S Navy to build wall-climbing robots and AI systems for naval ships of the Pacific Fleet.
This is a one-of-a-kind contract granted to a robotics firm; however, it will improve efficiency manifold, per Navy officials.
These robots will be able to reach difficult places on board, such as hulls, ballast tanks and confined spaces; crawling or flying to collect data which will be analysed by the AI-powered platform Cantilever.
It will identify maintenance needs and areas that need urgent attention 50 times faster and more accurately than manual inspections, claims Gecko Robotics.
In a documented case, a single robot inspection of a flight deck saved the company’s client over 3 months of maintenance delays.
This deal also signals a rampant advancement of robot tech and its entry into the shipbuilding sector.
Gecko operates around 250 robots across commercial and government customers, and plans to build 50 to 60 more in 2026.
According to the 5-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, the robotics company will work on 18 ships of the Pacific Fleet, including littoral combat ships, amphibious warships and destroyers with an initial award of up to $54 million.
The company said that it worked across the Navy’s surface fleet and on both Virginia and Columbia-class nuclear submarine programs.
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