Reach Robotics developing deep sea manipulator for defence

Mechanical arm and gripper specialist Reach Robotics has announced a new contract with the Australian Defence Force, which sees the company scheduled to deliver a new manipulator system able to operate over 800 meters below sea by mid-2025.

In a statement on Friday, the company – formerly known as Blueprint Lab – said it will develop a deep water variant of their Reach X Advanced Intervention System (RX-AIS.)

RX-AIS was launched last year and is designed to fit onto underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs.) It is described as a “highly dexterous, dual electric manipulator system designed for lightweight submersible platforms” and developed with collaborative input from both the US and Australian Departments of Defence (DoD.)

The value of the contract was not mentioned.

“This initiative proves the effectiveness of working hand-in-hand with our customers,” said Shaun Barlow, Director & Chief Product Officer, Reach Robotics. 

“Reach Robotics continues to demonstrate that the forefront of subsea manipulation technology lies in deeply understanding the challenges faced by the end-user and putting full design and engineering force behind solving for that.” 

According to its website, the non-custom version weighs 1.6 kilograms, has six degrees of freedom and a 3 kilogram lift capacity, and is depth-rated to 300 metres.

The custom version for defence “will be equipped with two seven-function subsea manipulators, specialised tooling and input device controller inclusions” as well as depth-rated to 800 metres.

Picture: credit Reach

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