Gecko Robotics, a creator of wall-climbing robots for asset inspection, announced that it’s expanding its work with the US Navy. Gecko’s robots will now be inspecting the US Navy’s first amphibious assault ship and an additional Arleigh Burke Class destroyer.
Gecko’s AI-powered robots gather data and build digital models of the Navy’s vessels to increase the speed of maintenance cycles and reduce the amount of time Navy vessels spend in dry dock.
Since being deployed with the Navy, Gecko’s robots have been able to reduce the lead time required for a ship rudder inspection from 11 days to one. Gecko’s inspections are also much more thorough than manual ones, for example, for one Navy asset, Gecko’s robots found more than 4.2 million data points on its inspection, while traditional methods found only 100 data points.
“We built Gecko Robotics to solve the hardest physical problems facing the world’s most important organizations,” Jake Loosararian, CEO and Co-Founder of Gecko Robotics, said. “We are proud to have a mature technology that has been tested and approved by both Navy technical leaders and the sustainment officials charged with reducing the Navy’s maintenance backlog. The sailors of the U.S. Navy have a vital mission in an increasingly complicated geopolitical environment and Gecko stands with them to make sure they have the tools they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.”
Gecko isn’t just working with the US Navy, in December 2022, the company announced it was awarded an 18-month, $1.5 million contract through the US Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Gecko Robotics’ technology is made for the power generation, oil and gas, heavy manufacturing and defense industries. Its TOKA Series robots, which include the TOKA 3, TOKA 4, TOKA 4 GZ and TOKA Flex, are each designed to perform under certain circumstances.
The TOKA 3, for example, is better for inspections on medium-sized piping and high-temperature surfaces, while the TOKA 4 does better with boiler walls and curved surfaces. The TOKA 3 is able to cover 60 feet per minute, while the others in the series can reach a top speed of 30 feet per minute.
Gecko was co-founded by Loosararian and Troy Demmer, now the chief product officer. Loosararian started the company in 2013 and in 2016 joined efforts with Demmer. The company received $2.1 million in funding the same year.
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