Search the hull.
Leave no cable behind.
ExRay is a wireless underwater inspection drone built for the missions where a trailing umbilical is a liability: covert hull search for limpet mines and contraband, harbour and anchorage security, and confined-space inspection inside ships and structures. Its detachable FLYOUT flies wirelessly from a relay ROV over the LUMA optical light link - no cable of its own to snag, foul or signal the surface.
The hull is the easiest place to hide a threat.
A limpet mine, a contraband package or a tampering device clamped to a hull below the waterline is invisible from the deck and slow to find by diver. Sending a fully tethered ROV around a moored vessel means fighting a cable through props, rudders, sea-chests and mooring lines. ExRay's wireless flyout flies that perimeter freely, holds station against a niche or weld seam, and streams what it sees back over the LUMA optical light link - no cable of its own trailing through the running gear.
Where a wireless drone earns its place
One vehicle, configured for the task at hand - from a covert naval hull search to a coast-guard boarding, a marine-police search or the inside of a flooded compartment.
Ship-Hull Search
Covert inspection of hulls, niches, sea-chests and running gear for limpet mines, contraband and tampering - clearing a vessel before a diver ever enters the water.
Harbour & Anchorage
Survey of quay walls, pilings, anchorages and approaches - routine sweeps or on-alert response where a single emplaced device can close a port.
Confined-Space Inspection
At 13.4 cm tall, ExRay enters flooded compartments, ballast voids, tanks and tight structure that rule out conventional ROVs and risk a confined-space diver.
Interdiction & Boarding Support
Applications such as searching a suspect vessel's hull, rudder trunk and sea-chests for concealed contraband or a hull-mounted device during a coast-guard, customs or border boarding - before divers commit.
Search & Evidence Recovery
Applications such as locating and recording submerged weapons, evidence or victims with geo-tagged FHD video and 4K stills - extending the search and cutting diver exposure in cold, dark or contaminated water.
Contact Identification
Applications such as putting eyes on a suspicious underwater contact, confirming what it is and geo-tagging it for diver or specialist follow-up - keeping personnel out of the water until the picture is clear.
How a covert search runs
A single operator, a small case and a vehicle that flies the search without a cable in the water or a marker on the surface.
Approach
The operator works from a quay, RHIB or shoreline. ExRay hand-launches in seconds - no crane, no winch, no umbilical to deploy.
Fly the Search
Six degrees of freedom let the vehicle hover along a hull, hold against a weld or niche and move into voids - manoeuvres a tethered ROV cannot make near structure.
Observe Wirelessly
The LUMA optical light link streams live FHD video from the flyout to its relay ROV - light, not a trailing cable on the part of the vehicle that flies the search.
Localise & Record
Suspect contacts are geo-tagged with FHD video and 4K stills through NAVIA - handed to divers or EOD for follow-up, or logged as a cleared survey.
No cable. No snag. Free to fly the hull.
Around a moored ship, a trailing umbilical is the enemy of the search - it fouls on props and mooring lines and limits how close the vehicle can work to a niche.
ExRay's wireless FLYOUT detaches from its relay ROV and works without a cable of its own - control, telemetry and live video travel over the LUMA optical light link, up to about 30 m beyond the tether. The operator keeps a real-time picture while the flyout flies the perimeter of the hull and into the spaces that matter.
See the specifications →From the case to the water in minutes
At just under 10 kg and 13.4 cm tall, ExRay is carried in one hand and launched without a vessel or support team. A single operator can clear a hull, sweep a quay wall or check an anchorage - discreetly, and without mobilising a dive team.
The NAVIA control station runs the dive from a rugged portable case, auto-detecting any fitted sensor payload and overlaying its data live on the pilot screen. Inspection records - geo-tagged points of interest, FHD video and 4K stills - are produced on the spot.
Full ExRay platform →Clear a hull without telling the world you're looking.
The wireless flyout carries no cable of its own - no drag and no umbilical to mark where it works, just a small drone flying the search and a single operator with eyes on the picture. For hull search, harbour security and clandestine inspection, that discretion is the capability.
ExRay at a glance
Faithful to the Hydromea ExRay platform. Contact us for mission-specific configuration.
- Vehicle weight9 kg (20 lbs)
- Height13.4 cm (5.25 in)
- Depth rating200 m
- Manoeuvrability6 degrees of freedom
- Thrusters8 hubless thrusters
- Transit speedUp to 2 knots (1 m/s)
- Endurance4 to 6 hours
- Wireless flyoutUp to ~30 m via LUMA optical light link
- CommunicationLUMA optical modem (wireless) or tether
- ImagingFull-HD video · 4K stills
Three ExRay packages - pick the readiness you need
Hydromea supplies ExRay as a complete, ready-to-dive system: robot, control station, tether, 4K camera package, batteries, transport case, NAVIA software and operator training. The three tiers differ in spare-parts holding, support level and damage cover - the things that decide whether a damaged vehicle is back in the water the same week.
Explorer
The complete system at the lowest entry cost - enough to stand up a capability, evaluate it against your own tasking and train the first operators.
- ExRay robot, standard control unit and control interface
- 100 m tether / comms link and 4K premium camera package
- Battery kit (3 batteries) and charger / power supply unit
- Transport case and basic maintenance toolkit
- NAVIA software, with 1 year of software & firmware upgrades
- Introductory operator training for up to 2 people
- 12-month standard warranty
No spare wing and no damage cover - a thruster or light failure means a repair turnaround rather than a same-week swap.
Professional
The tier most operational users buy: doubled power, a spare wing held on the shelf, a second screen for the supervising officer, priority support and damage cover from day one.
- Everything in Explorer, plus:
- 2 × battery kits and 2 × chargers for back-to-back dives
- 1 spare wing held on the shelf
- INSPECTOR STATION - a second live screen for a supervisor or surveyor
- 100 m of additional tether length
- Care Package for the first 12 months
- Priority support
- 2 years of software & firmware upgrades
Extended warranty to 24 months can be added, but only at the point of purchase.
Enterprise
Built for availability: a full spares holding, the longest tether reach, two years of damage cover and warranty out to 24 months.
- Everything in Professional, plus:
- 3 × battery kits and 3 × chargers
- 2 spare wings and a complete wet skin with 16 thruster ducts
- 200 m of additional tether length
- Care Package for the initial 24 months
- Extended warranty - 24 months total
- 3 years of software & firmware upgrades
- Co-branding for 2 years
The tier to specify when the vehicle is expected in the water most weeks of the year.
What is in each package
| What's in the box | Explorer | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core system | |||
| ExRay robot | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Standard control unit / control interface | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tether / comms link (100 m) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4K premium camera package | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Transport case | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Basic maintenance toolkit | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| INSPECTOR STATION | - | 1 | 1 |
| Additional tether length | - | +100 m | +200 m |
| Power & spares | |||
| Battery kit (3 batteries) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Charger / power supply units | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Spare wings | - | 1 | 2 |
| Wet skin with 16 thruster ducts | - | - | 1 |
| Software | |||
| NAVIA software | Included | Included | Included |
| Software & firmware upgrades | 1 year | 2 years | 3 years |
| Support, warranty & training | |||
| Standard warranty (12 months) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Extended warranty (24 months) | - | - | ✓ |
| Introductory training (up to 2 people) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Priority support | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Care Package | - | 1 year | 2 years |
| Co-branding | - | - | 2 years |
Scroll the table sideways on a narrow screen. We quote packages and options together as one line-item list - ask for a configured quote.
Mission options & payloads
Every payload is auto-detected and displayed inside NAVIA - no external topside box
ExRay FLYOUT - second wireless robot
HydromeaA second, zero-latency wireless ExRay that docks with the tethered vehicle and travels with it as one unit. At the target the FLYOUT detaches and flies on under wireless control with real-time HD video, over Hydromea's LUMA dispersed-light optical link - the tethered robot acting as the relay. No cable of its own on the search leg.
Needs the LUMA wireless upgrade on the tethered robot, and a DVLWireless LUMA upgrade
Hydromea · per robotAdds the LUMA nodes that let a tethered ExRay act as the wireless relay for a FLYOUT. It can be applied at any time and is performed remotely - the vehicle does not go back to Switzerland.
DVL - Doppler Velocity Log
Water Linked A50Measures velocity over the bottom from four angled transducers and the Doppler shift of the returning echoes. It changes pilot workload in adverse and confined water, holding stability where there is no visual reference. Fully integrated into NAVIA.
Mandatory when the wireless FLYOUT is usedMultibeam sonar - Oculus M750D / M3000D
Blueprint SubseaThe navigational aid that keeps ExRay working in zero visibility: a full picture of surrounding structures, objects and the bottom, with rapid image updates for target identification and precise dimensional data. M750D for range, M3000D for close-range detail. Fully integrated in NAVIA.
Scanning imaging sonar
Blue Robotics Ping360A mechanical scanning sonar giving a top-down view of the surroundings from a rotating acoustic transducer. NAVIA compensates for rotation and position, turning the scan into interactive situational awareness rather than a raw trace.
UT thickness sensor
Cygnus Instruments · single crystal (S2C)Wall-thickness readings without cleaning the surface first: in Echo-Echo mode the probes read through and ignore up to 1 mm (0.040 in) of coating; Single-Echo mode measures bare metal. 2–5 MHz probes, 1,001 g, fully integrated in NAVIA.
Gripper
Blue Robotics NewtonLets ExRay act as well as observe - recover a small object, attach a recovery line, or free a snagged tether without putting a diver in the water. Fully integrated in NAVIA.
INSPECTOR STATION
Hydromea · 7 kgAn extension of the pilot station for a second person on the dive - a supervising officer, class surveyor or client representative - with real-time monitoring on their own screen.
Spares & consumables
HydromeaSpare wings (four thrusters and one light each - a failed thruster means the whole wing is swapped, not the part), wet-hull skins and thruster ducts, battery packs (3 × 98 Wh), chargers, tether spools with 100 m of tether, additional tether in 50 m increments to a 300 m maximum, and transport cases.
Through-life support
What is covered, and what is not
Standard warranty - 12 months
Included with every ExRayCovers manufacturing defects for 12 months; Hydromea repairs the defective part or supplies an equivalent replacement. Consumables are excluded by nature - thruster magnets and propellers, and the battery (2 years, or below 80% charge / 200 discharge cycles). Extended warranty takes this to 24 months and is included in the Enterprise tier.
Care Package - damage cover
12 months (Professional) · 24 months (Enterprise)Cover for equipment worked hard in hostile water: no-questions-asked replacement of parts broken by accidental damage, plus a full health check and maintenance at Hydromea's Swiss facility or a designated official partner. Cover is tiered - the first tranche of repair cost met in full, the next at 80%, the balance above the upper threshold invoiced. External payloads, shipping and local taxes excluded.
Must be bought with a package · annual renewal · cannot be restarted once lapsedTraining & mission support
Included: 1 day, up to 2 peopleOne day of introductory training at Hydromea in Renens: vehicle setup, pre-dive checks, piloting, mission planning and navigation, plus hands-on routine maintenance, battery management, tether handling and post-mission procedures. Beyond that, a Hydromea pilot can plan and run a data-acquisition mission with you - booked per day, pilot and robot included, four weeks' notice.
Owner maintenance rhythm
Full procedures in the ExRay user manualPost-dive maintenance after every use; thruster and battery-cap maintenance every 10 dives; connector maintenance every 6 months. After a dive in dirty water carrying sand or mud, the interval is ignored - the maintenance is done straight away.
Software upgrades
1 / 2 / 3 years by tier, then annualGeneral software updates - bug fixes and critical functions - are issued to every owner at no cost. The Premium Upgrade Package is what unlocks the optional new ExRay and NAVIA features as the engineering team releases them; it is included for the initial period set by your tier and renewable annually thereafter.
Export & supply
SepcoTech · authorised distributorSwiss-built hardware supplied through SepcoTech in Denmark (NATO & EU). Export scope - ITAR-free where applicable, EU/DK controls - is confirmed at enquiry, and spares and support run through one accountable partner for the life of the system.
Credentials that stand up to scrutiny
Sourced and stated as it stands - no invented contracts, no borrowed programmes.
AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge - 2026
Hydromea's LUMA optical-comms technology was selected as the optical layer in a ~US$1M AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge project, led by Florida Atlantic University and backed by the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), UK DASA and Australia's ASCA - a hybrid acoustic-plus-optical system for command-and-control in contested and congested undersea environments.
Sources: FAU College of Engineering; Marine Technology News; startupticker.ch (June 2026). Award to FAU with Hydromea as technology partner - a research/demonstration grant, not an operational contract.DNV Class Approval - ExRay, 2023
ExRay holds DNV class approval for the Visual Remote Inspection Technique (RIT), enabling certified inspection of flooded spaces on offshore floating structures such as FPSO ballast-water tanks - secured via Hydromea's partner Air Control Entech (ACE) in June 2023.
Sources: Hydromea; ECO Magazine; Sea Technology (June 2023). An offshore-energy class approval for visual/NDT inspection - not a defence certification.Swiss-Engineered · EPFL Spin-Off
Hydromea SA is a Swiss company and EPFL spin-off, designing and building ExRay and the LUMA optical-modem family in Renens, near Lausanne - developed and manufactured in Switzerland.
Sources: Hydromea SA (hydromea.com); Swiss commercial register (CHE-475.622.854).SepcoTech does not claim any named navy, coast-guard or police procurement contract for Hydromea; none is published. Coast-guard, police and search-and-recovery tasks on this page are shown as representative applications the platform is suited to, not delivered programmes.
ExRay and LUMA, underwater
Footage published by Hydromea - the EXRAY wireless inspection drone and LUMA optical communication in operation.
A safe pair of hands for defence at sea
Authorised Distributor
We represent Hydromea directly - specification, supply and through-life support from one accountable partner.
Naval & EOD Focus
Systems matched to navies, coast guards and EOD units - selected for the mission, not adapted from civilian kit.
One Point of Contact
Multi-supplier defence systems, integrated and quoted as a single package by one team.
Backed Through Life
Training, spares and support for the full operational life of the system.
Speak directly with our defence specialist
Every enquiry is handled directly and in confidence - you will normally have a reply within one business day.
For spec sheets, capability documents, pricing or to arrange a briefing or demonstration - on this system or any platform in the SepcoTech defence portfolio - contact me directly:
- Spec sheets & technical datasheets on request
- Briefings & demonstrations for units & agencies