By Mr. Matthew
State Bureau Chief, Kerala
Page3News
KOCHI, KERALA — In a major country-first milestone for indigenous defence innovation, Kerala-based marine robotics and AI deep-tech company EyeROV has successfully developed and delivered two EyeROV TROUT underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) systems to the Indian Navy. The delivery forms part of an order for five EyeROV TROUT systems.
TROUT is the first military-grade ROV built in India and has been designed, manufactured, and qualified to military standards for naval operations.
Designed for Extreme Environments
The EyeROV TROUT is a rugged, mission-ready underwater robotic platform engineered for mission-critical naval and sub-sea operations. Key capabilities include:
Underwater inspection, surveillance, and reconnaissance
Search and recovery operations
Detection and robotic intervention
The platform is designed to operate in challenging underwater environments characterized by deep-dive conditions, poor visibility, strong currents, and limited accessibility.
Supporting Strategic Autonomy
Underwater robotics is becoming increasingly critical for Indian Navy operations, maritime security, infrastructure protection, port and harbour security, and maritime domain awareness. Developed under the iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) DISC 7 SPRINT Challenge, the deployment of TROUT directly supports the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India.
Johns T Mathai, CEO and Co-founder of EyeROV, stated:
“What started as an ambitious indigenous engineering programme has now matured into a mission-ready underwater robotic platform for the Indian Navy. We are proud that technology built in India can contribute to the safety and security of the nation. It strongly validates India’s ability to develop advanced marine robotic technologies domestically.”
Kannappa Palaniappan P, CTO and Co-founder of EyeROV, added:
“TROUT’s deployment with the Indian Navy is an important validation of the technology and of our indigenous engineering capabilities.”
Quality Assurance & Rigorous Testing
TROUT underwent extensive field trials and system-level validations focusing on manoeuvrability, deep-dive capabilities, performance in strong currents, navigation, endurance, and operator control.
The vehicle has been evaluated through the quality assurance framework of the Directorate of Quality Assurance (Naval) and environmental stress screening (ESS) per DGQAN policies, alongside completing full type testing to ensure performance under rigorous operational conditions.
