Gecko Robotics helping increase speed of the Columbia-class nuclear submarine manufacturing process

Gecko Robotics, a leader in using advanced robotics and software to decode the built world, announced a new demonstration contract with the U.S. Navy to help modernize the manufacturing process for the $132 billion Columbia-class nuclear submarine program. Gecko will use its advanced weld inspection and data capabilities to help the Navy decrease inspection time and reduce costs during the manufacturing process, while also providing a baseline of data to improve in-service maintenance cycles.



“We're proud to grow our partnership with the U.S. Navy beyond helping get ships through the maintenance process faster, to providing advanced manufacturing capabilities for the Columbia-class program,” says Jake Loosararian, CEO and Co-founder of Gecko Robotics. “Demand from customers for more data on the front-end of the manufacturing process to help implement better predictive maintenance is growing - and we’re looking forward to starting this work with the Columbia sub program.”

Under the new contract -- executed with BlueForge Alliance, a nonprofit integrator supporting the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base -- the Navy will incorporate Gecko’s robotic digital weld inspections to assess the integrity of welds during the manufacturing process. Digitizing weld inspection results will transform a key manufacturing process for the Columbia-class program, freeing up the skilled workforce for higher value tasks and eliminating the risk of unknown weld conditions. The goal of this project will be to validate the return on investment of Gecko’s weld inspection process throughout several tiers of the Columbia-class supply chain.