Bluefin Robotics

Bluefin Robotics was founded in 1997 by James Bellingham and Frank van Mierlo, both engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr Bellingham was the manager of the MIT AUV laboratory. In April 2014, it received a US$7.11 million federal contract from the US Navy's Office of Naval Research for the development of the Navy's experimental Black Pearl AUV. , Bluefin Robotics employs around 200 people. ==In the media==

The company's Bluefin-21, is a torpedo-shaped multirole AUV, was used in the search for Malaysian airlines MH370. The Knifefish, a derivative of the Bluefin-21, was developed in partnership with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems to perform minesweeping operations for the US Navy, replacing the trained minesweeping dolphins and sealions of the Marine Mammal Program in concert with the Navy's Littoral Combat Ships. The Bluefin SandShark Micro-AUV is an autonomous UUV weighing less than 15 pounds. Its functions include intelligence missions, small-scale survey missions recovering data, communications relays, conducting training, or functioning as a decoy for the U.S. Navy. HAUV is a two-man-portable hovering AUV designed for real-time data identification of structural issues on a ship's hull. In March 2011, an HAUV was used to inspect the hull of the Navy's oldest commissioned warship, USS Constitution, in Boston Harbor. In 2016, in conjunction with the Office of Naval Research, Bluefin Robotics developed the third generation Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HAUV-3). ==References==