Armada marine robotics (armada) is developing a scalable, autonomous ocean monitoring solution that reduces reliance on crewed vessels and eliminates single-use sensor waste

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded Armada Marine Robotics Inc. $689,991 under the NOAA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program on September 1, 2026, to develop and validate an autonomous ocean monitoring platform using scalable mobile floats.

In Phase II, Armada will execute three objectives: validate mobile float propulsion and ballast technologies through controlled environment, nearshore, and open-ocean testing; develop and validate mission planning tools to optimize deployment, transit, and recovery operations; and build a scalable data pipeline integrating near real-time sensor transmission, metadata tagging, and compatibility with oceanographic frameworks. The work addresses cost and scalability limitations of existing autonomous underwater vehicles by combining simplified propulsion and ballast innovations to enable constellation-scale interior ocean monitoring with reduced reliance on crewed vessels and single-use sensors.

Performance occurs at East Falmouth, Falmouth, Massachusetts, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2028. Armada Marine Robotics is a veteran-owned small business specializing in marine robotics and uncrewed underwater sensing platforms.

Existing sensing platforms such as autonomous underwater vehicles (auvs) are costly, scale poorly, and leave critical gaps in interior ocean data, limiting scientific and operational capabilities. Armadas mobile floats combine simplifying innovations in marine propulsion and ballast technology to enable a highly scalable deployment, operating, and recovery strategy. Coupled with an AI-ready data pipeline, armadas solution embodies a necessary paradigm shift from an expeditionary mindset to one centered around a constellation of infrastructure for access to the interior oceans at scale. In phase II, armada will focus on three key objectives. First, IT will validate its mobile float platform through real-world testing of propulsion and ballast technologies in controlled environments, nearshore waters, and open-ocean deployments. Second, IT will develop and validate mission planning tools to optimize deployment, transit, and recovery. Third, IT will develop and implement a scalable data pipeline, integrating near real-time sensor transmission, metadata tagging, and compatibility with oceanographic frameworks. These efforts will refine armadas capabilities, demonstrating a recoverable, adaptive, and scalable autonomous sensing network.