Vikra Ocean Tech builds underwater robots for inspection, survey and defence work
The Chennai-based company makes remotely operated vehicles, autonomous surface vessels and crawling robots, along with the cameras and lighting that go on them.
Vikra Ocean Tech, an Indian marine robotics company, has built underwater robots for inspection, survey, and defense purposes. Founded in 2018 by Rajeuv Govindan and Rajagurunathan Krishnasamy, the company is headquartered in Chennai and aims to develop an indigenous ocean robotics stack, including both underwater and surface vehicles.
The company has secured funding of about ₹8.8 crore ($1 million) from Finvolve and India Accelerator as seed investors, with two iDEX grants from the Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard providing institutional support.
Vikra's product range includes deep-water remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for subsea inspection and intervention, autonomous surface vessels for survey missions, amphibious crawling robots, and imaging and communication systems that tie everything together. All systems run through a single control platform, enabling interoperability and allowing operators to control different machines via one interface.
The company's primary focus is on depth, with its deep-ocean camera and lighting systems rated for 2,000 meters, and its autonomous surface vessels being used in offshore marine exploration.
The applications for Vikra's technology span various sectors, including defense, subsea infrastructure inspection, hydrographic survey, disaster response, dam, bridge, and reservoir inspection, aquaculture, and environmental research. As India has numerous aging dams and bridges with underwater structures requiring periodic inspection, Vikra's machines can potentially address these needs both in civilian and defense applications.
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