Gulf Blue Navigator Application – 2027 Cohort 5

The Gulf Blue Navigator Business Accelerator Cohort – 5 will be focused on later-stage (scaling) startups with technologies relevant, but not limited to, addressing operations in and through the near-shore littoral zone addressing complex factors such as extreme turbidity, dynamic bathymetry, acoustic clutter/ambient optical noise, and bioactivity. Of interest are commercial innovations and needed augmentations for integrating these innovations into existing practices, products, or services to safely maneuver within the high-energy coastal surf zone and adjacent littoral environment. Of particular interest are technologies which enable autonomous launch and recovery of small uncrewed maritime reconnaissance systems and automated edge processing of the seafloor, hazard detection, and bathymetric products in bubbly surf-zone environments.

These technologies may include autonomous platforms, sensors and data processing systems for performance in 1) breaking-wave (2-3 meters) and shallow water (5-meters or less), 2) beach, inlet, and dense vegetation environments, 3)  maneuvering with obstacle avoidance, 4) maneuvering in degraded, denied, intermittent, limited (DDIL) environments to include alternate positioning navigation timing (AltPNT), and 5) pier/port inspection. Other relevant technologies will be considered. These innovation needs have been identified by the Department of War (DoW), and in particular, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).