Indian marine automation specialist Accurate Industrial Controls is set to begin converting three patrol boats to Unmanned Surface Vessels  as part of a six-vessel deal with the Indian Navy.

Pune-based Accurate said the company has already undertaken a feasibility assessment of the first three vessels ahead of converting them to fully autonomous boats at Mumbai’s Naval Dockyard.

Dharmesh Popatlal Gala, Accurate’s director of AI & Robotics, said the three vessels include a 13m Fast Interceptor Craft (FIC) used in coastal reconnaissance and two larger 23m Immediate Support Vessels (ISV). The ISVs operate with frigates and other larger naval assets in mid ocean with a 400 nautical mile range.

Mr Gala said the vessels are part of a deal signed in 2022 with the Indian Navy. The long term contract saw Accurate complete the Autonomy Stack development programme with five audited milestones. The development process led to building two test USVs: a 13m interceptor craft and a 5m Search and Rescue (SAR) workboat undertaking 2,500 hours of sea and river trials with the Indian Navy. The final step was securing class certification for Accurate’s ‘Intelligent Situational Awareness and Collision Avoidance’ (ISACA) tech stack.  Following sea trials, the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) certified the ISACA tech stack to IRS AUTN 4-R(N) in line with the IMO’s International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs).

“We must thank the Indian Navy and IRS for backing this highly ambitious project,” he said. “The Navy has encouraged Accurate to expand into marine, building on three decades of industrial automation experience in sectors like auto and aerospace. Key to this was providing a guided development framework, facilitating sea trials in their governed space, enabling us to test the ISACA system with high-speed USVs to create COLREG situations in demanding conditions. The Navy has further incentivised us with minimum order guarantees, helping offset development costs with a clear passion for India to become a world leader in marine autonomy. We are immensely proud that Accurate is playing its part in the global USV race.”

Mr Gala said all six of the vessels will be equipped with the full ISACA system. He said that includes Multiple Sensors (Radar, INS, EOI), remote command and control, and 360-degree situational awareness (see notes to editors for full spec).

“USVs deploying the ISACA system can replace crews and provide 24/7 monitoring and persistent awareness at a fraction of the operational cost,” he said. “These matters more than ever in the naval arena, where the nature of warfare is evolving. Moreover, our ISACA system is light in compute power demanding low energy and thus reducing fuel use. It is intuitive to operate, easy to upgrade, and has latency time in milliseconds enabling ultra-fast response. The ISACA system does not require connectivity to a cloud, the computing and AI is done on Edge. This is much faster as Edge works offline and offers near-instant responses whereas the cloud-based architecture will have response delay from data traveling across the internet.”

Mr Gala said the ISACA autonomy tech stack will further be offered for export to allied navies and coastguards.

“We believe Accurate now offers one of the most advanced USV systems in the world,” he said. “It’s rigorously tested and ready to go.  We see a very big market in North Africa and the Middle East. We are further exploring training courses and simulators with European partners to accelerate USV adoption.”