Buying guide
Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) vs SM300 / SM200 in 2026
Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.
Key differences
- Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) has more verified real-world deployments (2 vs 1).
| Attribute | No image on file | |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Saildrone | Sea Machines Robotics |
| Form factor | maritime_surface | maritime_surface |
| Maturity | commercial | commercial |
| Autonomy | — | — |
| Availability | internal-onlyenterprise | internal-onlyenterprise |
| Price | Not announced | Not announced |
| Capability claims | — | — |
| Brain | — | — |
| Verified deployments | 2Kodiak, Global Ocean | 1California |
| Privacy practices | — | — |
| Sources on file | 9 | 5 |
Editorial summaries
Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor)
Saildrone (founded 2012 in Alameda, California by Richard Jenkins) is the canonical commercial autonomous-surface-vessel company and the captive data-as-a-service archetype of the maritime category: it owns and operates a fleet of wind- and solar-powered uncrewed surface vehicles and sells data and outcomes, not vessels. The line spans the 7-meter Explorer (ocean data), the 10-meter Voyager (coastal defense and mapping), and the 20-meter Surveyor (bathymetric mapping), with a 52-meter diesel-electric hybrid Spectre announced in 2026 for 2027 delivery that departs from the wind-and-solar identity. Customers include NOAA, the US Navy's 4th Fleet (counter-narcotics and illegal-fishing patrol), and Denmark's EIFO, and backers include a $100M Series C, a $60M EIFO round (May 2025), and a $50M Lockheed Martin strategic investment (October 2025). DEPLOY records it at commercial maturity, the most mature commercial surface-autonomy player. A significant cap-flag applies to its cumulative-mileage figures, which are inconsistent across its own channels: the defensible primary anchor is the October 2023 milestone of 1,042,620 nautical miles, 32,438 days at sea, and 136 vehicles; larger 2-to-2.5-million-nautical-mile figures are claimed, not verified. Because it sells data on service contracts and does not sell vessels, there is no consumer price.
SM300 / SM200
Sea Machines Robotics (Boston; founded by Michael Johnson) is the autonomy-system-vendor archetype of the maritime category: it makes the autonomy brain, not the boat. Its SM300 and SM200 autonomous-command systems are vessel-agnostic retrofit kits, about ten components installed in two days or less on existing or new-build workboats from 10 to 300 feet, so the customer owns and operates the hull while Sea Machines licenses the autonomy onto it. The September 2025 SM300-NG adds class-society-approved hardware, a 200-percent compute increase, full voyage control with collision avoidance and sensor fusion, and worldwide remote command, alongside an attritable SM300-SP defense variant. A late-2024 leadership change brought David Wasson (formerly of Huntington Ingalls) in as CEO with founder Johnson moving to president and CTO, a defense-pull hire on a $10M Series C (March 2025) and about $52M total raised. DEPLOY records it at commercial maturity on a real shipping product, class-society approval, and more than 200 systems delivered worldwide, and it credits the company with units delivered rather than sea-days, since its autonomy runs on other companies' hulls. The SM300-SP claim of more than 100 units a month is a stated production rate. As a B2B autonomy licensing business, no consumer price is published.
Common questions
- What is the difference between Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) and SM300 / SM200?
- Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) and SM300 / SM200 are both maritime_surface robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.
- Which has more verified deployments, Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) or SM300 / SM200?
- Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) has more verified deployments (2) on the DEPLOY registry than SM300 / SM200 (1). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.
Recent coverage
- Meta Cloud Business; NASA Lunar Lander Contracts | Stock MoversSaildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) · Bloomberg Technology · 2026-07-01
- Sea Machines STORMRUNNER USV supports counter-UAS capability testSM300 / SM200 · AgentRecon · 2026-06-30
- Sea Machines Announces Emerging Record Year of Bookings and Global Growth Fueled by USV AdoptionSM300 / SM200 · AgentRecon · 2026-04-22
- Navy to Deploy Thousands of Unmanned Surface Vessels to the Indo-Pacific by 2030Saildrone USV (Explorer / Voyager / Surveyor) · AgentRecon · 2026-04-21
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