Gecko Robotics, Anduril team up for new Baltimore County shipyard

Gecko Robotics will use its inspection technology and AI-powered software at Anduril's new submarine manufacturing facility. (Gecko Robotics)

WASHINGTON — Gecko Robotics will deploy its robotics and AI software at Anduril facilities, the company announced today, as Anduril prepares to launch its new Arsenal-2 shipyard in Baltimore County, Md. , to manufacture submarine parts.

Gecko Robotics will utilize its inspection technology and its AI-powered software to conduct non-destructive testing (NDT) on these submarine components and will establish a “digital thread” of data to assist with maintenance planning, per Gecko’s announcement.

“It allows us to go in and assess and create that digital baseline of the actual, as-built condition of this critical component, and so it takes things like our robotic capability and actually gathers and sort of inspects what’s going on subsurface within the weld, etc.,” Troy Demmer, co-founder and president of Gecko Robotics, told Breaking Defense.

On Tuesday, Anduril and the White House announced that the company is establishing a new facility to manufacture parts like torpedo turbines for Virginia-class submarines as part of a $6.6 billion investment, with $3.7 billion from private capital and up to $2.9 billion from the Navy. Permitting for the new shipyard is expected to commence immediately, and construction will launch after it has received appropriate approval, Breaking Defense previously reported .

Currently, Anduril is preparing for the facility to launch initial operations in 2030, and plans to expand production from basic submarine parts into more complex sections of the vessel, like the bow.

Anduril also announced Tuesday that it will start to manufacture submarine parts at a new, 160,000-square-foot facility in Orange County, Calif., in conjunction with building the new Arsenal-2 facility. Gecko’s technology will be used at the Orange County facility as well, according to the firm.

“We are already embedding Gecko’s NDT technology into real production workflows at our Orange County protofactory and integrating it deeply with ArsenalOS,” Bill Noderer, Anduril’s vice president and general manager for shipbuilding, said in a statement today. “This will reduce inspection wait times, give our inspectors better tools to do their jobs, and establish quality processes that we can bring to the Arsenal-2 shipyard in Maryland from day one.”

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Anduril’s shipyard announcement comes as industry has struggled to meet the Navy’s production goal of two Virginia-class submarine deliveries annually. The Navy’s shipbuilding plan released in May said investing in the submarine industrial base is critical to hitting that production target.

Gecko Robotics has previously worked with the US Navy, and in March, the service awarded the company a contract of up to $71 million over five years to use Gecko’s hull-scaling robots and artificial intelligence to identify possible repairs on ships, including destroyers in the US Pacific Fleet.

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Gecko Robotics公司将在Anduril公司新建的潜艇制造厂中使用其检测技术和人工智能软件。（Gecko Robotics）

华盛顿——Gecko Robotics公司今天宣布，该公司将在Anduril的设施中部署其机器人和人工智能软件。Anduril正准备在马里兰州巴尔的摩县启动其新的Arsenal-2造船厂，用于制造潜艇部件。

根据 Gecko Robotics 的公告，该公司将利用其检测技术和人工智能软件对这些潜艇部件进行无损检测 (NDT)，并建立数据“数字主线”以协助维护计划。

“它使我们能够进入并评估和创建这一关键部件实际建成状态的数字基线，因此它利用我们的机器人能力，实际收集并检查焊接内部表面以下的情况等等，”Gecko Robotics 的联合创始人兼总裁 Troy Demmer 告诉 Breaking Defense。

周二，安杜里尔公司和白宫宣布，该公司将新建一座工厂，用于生产弗吉尼亚级潜艇的鱼雷涡轮机等零部件。该项目总投资66亿美元，其中37亿美元来自私人资本，至多29亿美元来自海军。据《防务新闻》此前报道，新造船厂的审批工作预计将立即启动，并在获得相关批准后开工建设。

目前，安杜里尔正在为该设施于 2030 年启动初期运营做准备，并计划将生产范围从基本的潜艇部件扩展到更复杂的舰艇部分，如船首。

安杜里尔公司周二还宣布，将在加州橙县新建一座占地16万平方英尺的工厂，开始生产潜艇零部件。该工厂与新建的Arsenal-2工厂同步建设。据该公司称，橙县工厂也将采用Gecko公司的技术。

“我们已经在位于奥兰治县的原型工厂将Gecko的无损检测技术融入到实际生产流程中，并将其与ArsenalOS系统深度集成，”Anduril公司副总裁兼造船总经理比尔·诺德勒（Bill Noderer）今天在一份声明中表示。“这将缩短检验等待时间，为我们的检验员提供更好的工具来完成工作，并建立起一套质量流程，我们可以从马里兰州Arsenal-2造船厂投产的第一天起就将其应用到新厂。”

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安杜里尔造船厂的这项公告发布之际，正值造船业难以达到海军每年交付两艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇的生产目标。海军五月份发布的造船计划指出，投资潜艇工业基础对于实现这一生产目标至关重要。

Gecko Robotics 此前曾与美国海军合作，今年 3 月，美国海军授予该公司一份为期五年、价值高达 7100 万美元的合同，利用 Gecko 的船体测量机器人和人工智能技术来识别舰船（包括美国太平洋舰队的驱逐舰）上可能存在的维修问题。

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