Subvision

Website: coming soon!

SubVision is an innovative SFU-based startup developing autonomous boat hull cleaning robots that take the hassle out of maintenance. Our vision is to transform boat maintenance into a seamless, eco-conscious process, ensures boat owners and enthusiasts can have peace of mind knowing that their vessel’s hull is protected from the elements.

Any structure that sits in water accumulates a build-up of microorganisms, algae, and plants known as biofouling. This creates drag, inefficiencies in fuel consumption, as well as hull damage. The current market approaches involves professional divers manually cleaning the hulls, and periodic dry docking for washing and repainting. These methods not only require significant manpower and time but also contribute to environmental damage due to the harsh chemicals in repainting and the frequent application of antifouling coatings.

Our approach eliminates the need for divers, and greatly extend the invervals between dry docking. Utilizing machine learning and mechatronic mechanisms, we are working on a robot that can attach to and navigate boat hull surfaces to gently scrub them for biofouling, thereby maintaining cleanliness and avoiding the need for abrasive and costly proceedures. We are focused on servicing recreational and commercial midsize vessels, with plans of expanding to larger ones all across the pacific coast. 

SubVision is committed to environmental sustainability. We believe we can make a meaningful contribution to keep our oceans clean, and hold to the ideal of robotics, to automate the tough, grueling tasks so that we humans can do what we enjoy most.