Underwater Robots Restore Seagrass

Ulysses is building a general-purpose autonomy platform for maritime operations, specifically autonomous robots for the ocean to do important things.

Initial Use Case: Seagrass Restoration

• Problem:

  • Seagrass is dying off at 7% per year globally
  • It's 35 times better than rainforests at removing carbon
  • Holds 20% of carbon in the ocean
  • Supports 25% of the world's most critically important fish stocks
  • Loss threatens 1 billion people who rely on it for income and 3 billion for food
  • Causes of loss include water quality issues, coastal construction, dredging, and changing ocean temperatures

• Solution:

  • Built autonomous robots to restore seagrass (currently a manual process)
  • Created a "mothership" surface vehicle that releases "daughter robots" (underwater vehicles)
  • Developed custom robotic payloads with attachments for:
    • Collecting seeds
    • Planting seeds
    • Measuring growth

• Business Model:

  • Compliance-driven restoration: Companies that damage seagrass must pay to restore it
  • Voluntary-led restoration projects
  • Current contracts in Western Australia, Florida, and Virginia

• Results:

  • $1 million in revenue in first year
  • Only 5-person team based in San Francisco
  • Raised only $2 million in funding

• Technology Enablers:

  • 3D printers: dramatically increased speed of iteration
  • Overnight parts delivery
  • Reduced costs of components (batteries, motors from electric vehicles and drones)
  • Starlink: critical for communicating with autonomous assets at sea