maritime-technology
(3)
Sea Machines Robotics
Sea Machines Robotics is a Boston-based company building autonomous command, control, and perception systems for commercial and defense vessels. Its products - including the SM300 autonomous control system, the SM200 wireless remote helm, and the AI-Ris computer-vision sensor - let workboats, tugs, survey craft, and unmanned surface vehicles operate remotely or autonomously while improving safety and crew productivity. Founded in 2015 by marine engineer Michael G. Johnson, the company has deployed systems on four continents and works with customers spanning shipping, spill response, government, and the military.
Joe Wolfel
Joe Wolfel is the co-founder and CEO of Terradepth, a Cedar Park, Texas company building an ocean data ecosystem that pairs autonomous underwater robots with a cloud platform to turn fragmented subsea readings into decision-ready intelligence for commercial and government customers. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Navy SEAL, Wolfel started the company in 2018 with fellow SEAL Judson Kauffman after concluding that humanity's ignorance of the ocean was a solvable data problem. He frames Terradepth less as a robotics maker and more as an 'Ocean Operating System,' shifting the maritime industry from buying platforms to buying the intelligence those platforms generate.
Ulysses
Ulysses is a San Francisco ocean-robotics company building low-cost, modular autonomous underwater vehicles that replace multimillion-dollar ships and human divers. Founded in 2023, it started by using robots to replant declining seagrass meadows 100x faster than volunteer divers, then extended the same modular platform to offshore wind surveys, subsea infrastructure inspection, and maritime security. Its flagship Mako AUV dives 5,000 feet for up to 72 hours and starts at roughly $50,000 - about 50x cheaper than legacy systems - and the company raised a $38M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in April 2026.