Sea Smoke

MH-DB1 · Uncrewed Surface Vessel

Still Searching After Dark.

A long-endurance autonomous surface vessel built to look for people lost at sea — and to keep looking long after crewed assets have to turn back.

Active Development Platform
The search window closes faster than help arrives.

In open water, survivability is measured in hours and search areas grow by the square of elapsed time. Crewed vessels and aircraft are limited by fuel, crew endurance, and cost per hour — and the search usually has to be suspended overnight, precisely when conditions turn against the person in the water.

Sea Smoke exists to hold a search area open. It is a small, low-cost, uncrewed platform designed to be launched quickly, to stay on station for days rather than hours, and to keep sensors pointed at the water continuously — including through the night, when crewed search is hardest and least likely to happen.

Platform Overview
ClassificationUncrewed Surface Vessel (USV)Small-displacement monohull, single-screw.
Primary RoleSearch & Rescue SupportPersistent surface search, datum marking, and on-scene relay.
EnduranceMulti-Day, On StationDesigned to hold a search area for days rather than hours.
AutonomyWaypoint & Station-KeepingAutonomous track-following with station-hold and return-to-launch. Human-in-the-loop for tasking and abort.
Operator InterfaceLive Telemetry HUDContinuous vessel state to a shore or vessel-side operator console.
Program StatusActive — 2020 to PresentServes as the primary development and validation platform for our autonomous maritime work.
Design Approach
Built around staying out there.
Endurance over peak performance
Every design decision is weighed against time on station rather than top speed. A vessel that can hold a search area open for days is worth more to the person in the water than one that gets there faster and has to turn back.
Fault-tolerant by default
Vessel health is monitored continuously, and the control software is written to degrade rather than stop. When a subsystem moves outside its safe operating range, the vessel reduces demand and protects itself instead of being left adrift.
Marine-first engineering
Salt, vibration, and heat are treated as design inputs rather than afterthoughts. Electrical isolation between propulsion and control electronics, sealed enclosures, and conservative thermal margins are prioritized over peak performance figures.
Expanding sensor suite
The vessel is built as a sensor carrier. The payload bay and power budget are sized to accept additional detection and imaging capability as it is developed and validated, without redesigning the platform around each addition.
Tested where it will work
Development and sea trials are conducted in Hawaiian coastal waters, in the same conditions the platform is intended to operate in — not in a tank or a calm-water proxy.
Development
2020
Program start
The Sea Smoke program begins.
2021 – 2023
Hull fabrication and program capital
Hull fabrication, building the capital to fund the project, and developing the schematic the rest of the build would be based on.
2024 – 2025
Hardware development
Onboard hardware designed, built, and integrated into the vessel.
2026
Software and electrical development
Control software, electrical system, and the operator interface brought together on the current vessel. Ongoing sea trials.
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