Saildrone Explorer

The Saildrone Explorer is a 23-foot (7-metre), wind- and solar-powered unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed by Saildrone Inc. since 2013, offering over 12 months of endurance at ~3 knots average speed. It operates via remote waypoint tasking — operators send coordinates and the vessel autonomously adjusts its rudder and sail to follow them — while human operators (Saildrone staff) navigate and manage the USVs and mission clients (e.g., NOAA) define operational objectives. The platform carries a broad sensor suite including metocean instruments, hydroacoustics, 360-degree cameras with ML-based anomaly detection, and optional bathymetry sonars, streaming data in real time via Iridium satellite. With over 1 million miles and 32,000 days at sea across deployments including Arctic surveys, Atlantic hurricane intercepts, fisheries assessments, and maritime domain awareness trials, it is a mature, extensively deployed platform operating under supervised-autonomous conditions.