Graal Tech Srl
Genoa university spin-off (1998) building the modular X-300 AUV family, the MGB-300 USV gateway and the UMA-1500 modular underwater manipulator.
Graal Tech Srl is an Italian designer and builder of underwater mechatronic systems based at Via Egidio Tagliolini 26 in Genoa. The company has worked on underwater robotics since 1998, when it started as a spin-off of the University of Genoa. It describes itself as both a product company and an R&D partner for multinational corporations, government bodies, research centres and universities in oil and gas, defence, space, security, oceanography and environmental monitoring. Its team of more than 20 researchers and technicians is split into design, production and software departments and is led by chief executive Andrea Caffaz.
The company launched its first autonomous underwater vehicle in 2003 and regards it as the forerunner of today's X-300. Graal Tech signed its first industrial R&D contract, with Thales Alenia Space, in 2005, and in 2006 it completed EWM (Eurobot Wet Model), the first underwater manipulation system it designed and built entirely in-house. According to the company history, the geophysical group CGG acquired shares in Graal Tech in 2013, and in 2020 Seabed Geosolutions took a 24% stake as part of an industrial agreement.
The product line is built around the modular X-300 family. The X-300 AUV is a torpedo-shaped vehicle 2,222 mm long and 155 mm in diameter, weighing 29 kg in air. It is made of two carbon-fibre cylinders joined to wet end sections that hold the thrusters and a buoyancy bladder. It is rated to 300 m in AUV mode and 150 m in glider mode, reaches 5 knots and can hover at zero speed. It runs for about 14 hours at full speed on a 1,200 Wh lithium-ion battery, or for days as a glider. The X-300 was developed from the earlier Folaga vehicle. It takes a neutrally buoyant payload module in the middle of the hull, and its open control system lets users host their own Arduino, ARM or x86 board and reach the vehicle's sensors and actuators through supplied libraries.
There are several variants. The X-300 MCM Compact, for mine countermeasures, carries a 900/1800 kHz side-scan sonar and EvoLogics USBL and runs for 8-10 hours. The X-300 Explorer is a short configuration with five cameras, a sonar and a fibre-optic tether of up to 5 km, so it can be flown like an ROV. The R-300 joins three short X-300 units on an aluminium frame to carry up to 60 kg of payload, such as a manipulator, and works as either an AUV or a tethered ROV.
The MGB-300 is a 28 kg unmanned surface vehicle with two retractable rods: one carries a UHF radio modem with a range of up to 10 km and the other an underwater acoustic modem. It serves as a data gateway between submerged X-300s and the control station and runs for 12 hours at full speed. The UMA-1500 is a modular electric manipulator with brushless motors inside each joint, rated to 1,500 m; a typical six-axis build has a 2 m reach and lifts 10 kg in air. The X-300 Simulator is a desktop unit that runs the same software and processors as the real vehicle, for mission rehearsal and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Graal Tech also offers R&D partnership, CFD-based hydrodynamic modelling and simulation, equipment rental, and data collection with its own vehicles on behalf of clients. It tests its systems in a 150 cubic metre water tank before sea trials. In recent work it trained staff of the Portuguese Navy Hydrographic Institute to operate a newly acquired AUV. It also developed AUV-UpH20, a micro-chemical laboratory carried on an AUV that detects metals in seawater near Adriatic oil and gas platforms, with support from Italy's Ministry of Environment and Energy Security and logistics from ENI. Graal Tech is a partner in the Horizon Europe project DIGI4ECO and in the NERITES project. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Fincantieri subsidiary Ingegneria dei Sistemi to co-develop small and medium unmanned underwater vehicles and to set up a test and pilot-training centre.
The company holds ISO 9001 quality certification issued by RINA.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
More related news
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
-
16
OCEANS 2027 Aberdeen: June 21-24, P&J Live RobotToday · Oct 06, 2026
-
17
XPONENTIAL 2027: May 17-20, Miami Beach RobotToday · Oct 05, 2026
- 18
- 19
- 20
Contact Graal Tech Srl
WEBSITE
https://www.graaltech.com/PHONE
+39 010 8597680HEADQUARTERS
Italy
Company Facts
Founded
1998
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
Certifications & Memberships
