NYK invests in USV technology, plans future mass production

NYK has made an equity investment in Kamakura, Japan-headquartered Oceanic Constellations to support extensive production of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and marine simulators.

Oceanic Constellations plans to produce several USVs as a new fleet in the next few years to support ocean surveillance, disaster prevention and communications, among other commercial applications.

NYK said this start-up “has capabilities in integrated environmental simulation that realistically reproduce the marine environment, essential for USV operations.”

This equity investment supports NYK’s work with Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and one of its shipyards to construct USVs.

NYK has a contract from JAXA, under the Space Strategy Fund, to develop an offshore recovery system for reusable rockets. It expects Oceanic Constellations’ technologies to verify the feasibility and improve the accuracy of the rocket recovery system.