Houston Mechatronics Adopts Numurus’ NEPI Smart IoT Platform

To create its Aquanaut autonomous offshore inspection and maintenance robot, Houston Mechatronics (HMI) is working with Numurus LLC on a full life-cycle Edge-to-Cloud AI management solution. The Aquanaut is a new class of subsea vehicle that employs a patented shape-shifting transformation from an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), removing the need for vessels and tethers.  Once integrated into the Aquanaut platform, Numurus’ Edge Platform Interface (NEPI) will provide HMI a turnkey smart IoT solution for in-situ two-way messaging and remote configuration management over acoustic and satellite links, as well as pre/post mission data, software, and AI management from a secure cloud environment.  

“To achieve our goals, Houston Mechatronics is developing partnerships with technology companies developing unique solutions in our field, and Numurus clearly is developing the type of solutions we require.” said CEO, Nicolaus Radford. “Once integrated, NEPI will not only provide integrated Edge-to-Cloud machine learning capabilities but will also provide capabilities for in-situ software reconfiguration to support a variety of dynamic mission critical tasks.”

“Houston Mechatronics’ vision of an autonomous inspection and maintenance robot fleet aligns well with the types of solutions we created the company to support”, said Jason Seawall, CEO of Numurus.   “As Houston Mechatronics fills technology gaps on the robotic and autonomous controls side, Numurus is developing complementary innovation focused on AI enabled smart sensors and Cloud based AI management solutions.”

Since NEPI software components, both device-side and cloud-side, run within fully self-contained Docker containers, HMI has significant flexibility in how they integrate and deploy the solution, including offline in-field applications. Numurus is also providing cloud enabled smart perception inspection sensor solutions to Houston Mechatronics as part of a development partnership to meet their long-term vision of reinventing the offshore inspection and maintenance services market.

About Numurus

Numurus provides information solutions for robotic inspection and maintenance applications.  The company’s Smart Inspection Ecosystem combines Edge hardware and software platforms with Cloud management services to support information creation on the Edge and in the Cloud.  Numurus’ products enable robotic inspection and maintenance for some of the toughest environments on earth.  In addition to turn-key tools and products, Numurus’ engineering team provides full design and integration engineering services.

About Houston Mechatronics

HMI is working to become the go-to provider of autonomous ocean vehicle technologies. Specifically targeting intervention, maintenance, and repair (IMR) services for energy, telecom, aquaculture, mining, and renewables markets, our technology will provide unprecedented value to these customers (and Earth). Our focus is to seamlessly deploy fleets of Aquanauts, via on-demand subscriptions, to service our target markets and deliver exceptional value to our customers. Our services provide customers the necessary data and manipulation capability to support maximizing production and improving asset value while minimizing their operating footprint, operating cost, carbon footprint, and offshore HS&E exposure.