New technology in the form of unmanned seacraft will begin testing in Leigh this month. X-craft, a New Zealand owned and operated company that focuses on the design, development and application of robotic craft, has a new boat ready to be tested.

X-craft has been running for 11 years and has created products to fight illegal fishing, carry out scientific research, and help in search and rescue operations; all done remotely. They have chosen to test their unmanned craft in Leigh because of the relatively uncrowded seas and access to both coastal and blue water.

“The thing that really gets me is that we are a maritime nation, we have to be able to protect all that and respond to emergencies in that, but with what?” says Phillip Solaris, CEO of X-craft.

The Pacific Ocean is vast; the coastguard can only cover so much during a search and rescue operation and MPI’s abilities to prevent illegal fishing operations are limited. 

The X-craft boats are small, relatively cheap to make and can be controlled and monitored from anywhere in the world, whilst sending information to whoever needs it. 

“If we can provide a capability that extends what can be done for a small cost, it's a no brainer”.

Think of X-craft as a Swiss army tool sea craft. They have the ability to stay out at sea for months on end and collect data, can track and follow vessels of interest, can deploy life rafts, they have tools to track climate change and a flight deck for a drone. They ways in which these craft can help may only be limited by the imagination.

The technology to be tested works in a similar way to driverless cars. Object recognition, for example, allows the craft to make decisions on what objects or boats will be of interest to those back on shore. An example of when this would be useful is a project X-craft is currently working on: the tracking and monitoring of Maui dolphin. The automation or ‘independence’, as Phillip likes to think of it, allows the craft to identify whether what it is seeing is a Maui dolphin, and therefore worth monitoring.

X-craft is offering solutions to a multitude of issues. As Phillip says, “this sort of technology is what a small country can do. People underestimate the brains and can-do attitude of Kiwis.