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 wide, 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.
MCM & EOD Cueing
Applications such as putting eyes on a suspicious contact, confirming a threat and geo-tagging it for a clearance-diver or EOD 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 wide, 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 or a mine-hunter.
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 weightJust under 10 kg (22 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)
- EnduranceUp to 4 hours
- Wireless flyoutUp to ~30 m via LUMA optical light link
- CommunicationLUMA optical modem (wireless) or tether
- ImagingFull-HD video · 4K stills
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, MCM/EOD 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
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