{"id":53,"date":"2026-05-12T09:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\/?p=53"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:34:44","slug":"can-this-mass-startup-help-save-lives-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"Can this Mass. startup help save lives at sea?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You don\u2019t have to flip the calendar back too far to find an instance of someone falling off a ship. <\/p>

Read more Liam Collins tosses four scoreless innings, Saint John\u2019s baseball shuts down Xaverian<\/a><\/p>

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In late April, off the coast of Cape Cod, a crew member working on the Norwegian Breakaway fell overboard as the cruise liner was returning to Boston from Bermuda. After a 12-hour search involving helicopters, boats and a search plane, the Coast Guard was unable to locate the 26-year-old cook.<\/p>

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A Cambridge startup company is working on a torpedo-shaped device that could help when similar situations arise in the future. Gander Robotics raised $1.1 million last month from investors, began hiring its first employees and set up shop at The Engine, a startup incubator affiliated with MIT.<\/p>

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All that while the company\u2019s two co-founders were finishing up their degrees. Lael Ayala expects to receive her bachelor\u2019s in mechanical engineering from Harvard this month, and Michael Autery an MBA degree from MIT\u2019s business school.<\/p>

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Autery, who served 15 years in the U.S. Navy, said that according to his research, the survival rate for sailors who fall overboard is about 28%, and in the cruise industry it\u2019s even lower: 17%. And one or two people fall off a cruise ship every month, he said. <\/p>

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The response today is pretty rudimentary, Autery said. \u201cYou throw over anything that floats, and you hope they swim to it. The biggest thing is that everything today counts on human reaction time and eyesight.\u201d Even in a helicopter, he said, \u201cyou\u2019ve got four people with eyeballs, and you\u2019re looking for the equivalent of a coconut floating in the ocean.\u201d <\/p>

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Michael Autery and Lael Ayala pose next to the Charles River with an underwater vehicle they built as part of an MIT course.\u00a0Courtesy Michael Autery<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Gander is designing an \u201cautonomous rescue swimmer\u201d that can use a new kind of side-scanning sonar to find a person in the water. It then deploys three things: a flotation device for them to grab, a beacon that transmits location via radiofrequency, and a flare to send a visual signal to searchers. (The device, known as an autonomous underwater vessel, or AUV, cannot grab onto an unconscious person in the water.) The device is small enough that it can be easily dropped from a helicopter or tossed over the side of a ship. <\/p>

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Two key factors will be how long the AUV can operate in the water \u2014 Autery said the goal is several hours \u2014 and what it will cost. <\/p>

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Toby Stapleton, co-founder of the Blue Venture Forum, a group of investors that puts money into maritime startups, said the least expensive AUVs available today, typically sold to the military, are priced at $80,000 and up. <\/p>

Read more Mass. man arrested for throwing lit firework at police cruiser in N.H., police say<\/a><\/p>

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Autery said that he expected to be able to make a device that costs in the neighborhood of $50,000.<\/p>

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Gander, Stapleton said, is \u201ctrying to replace some very low-tech systems, like the old circular flotation device with the ship\u2019s name on it that you throw overboard and hope somebody catches it.\u201d <\/p>

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Stapleton also wondered whether having one Gander AUV on board a large ship would be sufficient. But he said that most other makers of AUVs have been focused on tasks such as detecting mines, submarines, and ships, and finding things on the bottom of the ocean \u2014 not helping with search-and-rescue missions.<\/p>

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\u201cI think every single ship in the world could use this,\u201d Autery said, mentioning yachts, container ships and fishing vessels. He hopes to have the company\u2019s first prototype in the water for testing this summer. <\/p>

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In addition to Gander, Massachusetts is home to a cluster of more established makers of AUVs, including Anduril Maritime, Saab, L3 Harris OceanServer, General Dynamics Mission Systems, Teledyne Marine, and HII Unmanned Systems.<\/p>

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Autery said he\u2019s not sure the venture would\u2019ve taken off so quickly anywhere else; he first pitched the idea as part of an MIT entrepreneurship competition last December. Not long after, he raised $1.1 million from Underscore VC, Impellent Ventures and several individual investors.<\/p>

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\u201cIf I had the same idea in a different place at the same time, I\u2019m not sure it would\u2019ve played out the same way,\u201d he said. \u201cCambridge is this very rich ecosystem for entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Prosecutors identify domestic assault suspect killed in Plymouth car crash<\/a><\/p>

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<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t have to flip the calendar back too far to find an instance of someone falling off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nCan this Mass. startup help save lives at sea? - Massachusetts Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\/?p=53\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can this Mass. startup help save lives at sea? - Massachusetts Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You don\u2019t have to flip the calendar back too far to find an instance of someone falling off\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\/?p=53\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Massachusetts Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-12T09:34:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f2576c4296f46811c2ced5b2c356cfb2\"},\"headline\":\"Can this Mass. startup help save lives at sea?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-12T09:34:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53\"},\"wordCount\":751,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4137304234fa9e7c4d42143d88c8b557.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/massachusettsmovingnews.com\\\/?p=53\",\"name\":\"Can this Mass. startup help save lives at sea? 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