Descent of the machines: Australian firm boasts of underwater drone swarms

An Australian company has developed a fleet of underwater drones capable of swarming the seas. Aquabotix Technology Corp., based in Sydney, Australia, and in Fall River, Mass., has produced the Swarmdiver unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), which can function as a coordinated swarm with one human operator, diving below the sea’s surface to collect valuable intelligence, company officials say. The drone itself weighs about four pounds, is 30 inches long, can dive to depths of about 170 feet, and is said to can sense its depth to within less than an inch. A multi-constellation GPS installation lets the Swarmdiver figure out where it is in the world, while a wireless data feedback system is installed on it so it can relay its gathered data home when it surfaces.