DRDO unveils new man-portable autonomous underwater vehicles
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The Defence Research and Development Organisation has created a new generation of man-portable autonomous underwater vehicles (MP-AUVs).
The Ministry of Defence announced the development on Friday.
The MP-AUVs were designed and built by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) in Visakhapatnam. The system includes multiple autonomous underwater vehicles fitted with side scan sonar and underwater cameras. These serve as the primary payloads and help in real-time detection of mine-like objects.
According to the ministry, the vehicles are supported by onboard deep learning-based target recognition algorithms. These allow autonomous classification of underwater objects. The technology also reduces operator workload and cuts down mission time.
The ministry said the successful development of the MP-AUVs marks a significant advancement in underwater surveillance capabilities.