Rapid field testing accelerates Vatn’s transition to mass manufacturing
Vatn develops autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed for intensive maritime operations. With unmatched access to testing waters, Vatn rapidly transitioned from prototype to ready for large-scale manufacturing, powered by Nominal’s automated testing pipeline.
Mission Brief: Vatn
Founded: 2023
Headquarters: Portsmouth, RI
Mission: Deliver affordable, mass-produced autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to expand naval capability, scale maritime operations, and counter adversary threats in contested environments.
Core Technology [Defense]:
The Skelmir S6 – an expendable, modular autonomous underwater effector designed specifically for high-volume naval and special operations missions. The platform is rapidly manufacturable and supports diverse payloads (kinetic, electromagnetic, cyber, sensor) without requiring complex vessel integrations.
Operational Focus:
Vatn enables mass deployment of autonomous underwater systems to overwhelm adversary defenses, mitigate operational risk, and significantly expand mission capabilities. Deployed en masse from air, surface, subsurface, or shore, Vatn’s systems offer covert insertion and precision placement through GPS-denied navigation, advanced current and tide modeling, and tactical integration (ATAK compatible).
“We’re testing and iterating faster than anyone today – ready to deliver capability, not promises. Nominal lets us out-test the competition, validate assets, and confidently ramp production.”
– Nelson Mills, CEO
The Challenge: Scaling from Prototype to Fleet Operations
Rapid Daily Testing: Vatn submersibles test nearly every day, in all weather, generating vast quantities of critical data.
Manual Bottlenecks: Legacy spreadsheet analysis and manual merges slowed iteration, limiting test volume and scaling readiness.
Readiness for Production: Vatn required streamlined, automated acceptance testing to quickly transition from daily field tests to full-scale production, demonstrating clear capability to prospective customers.
Vatn’s success hinged on automating data collection and eliminating internal tooling hurdles to confidently deliver production-level capabilities at a high cadence.
Nominal in Action
1. From Surfacing to Validation in Under 5 Minutes
When each AUV exits the water, Vatn’s automated pipeline is triggered, immediately uploading mission data into Nominal’s central warehouse. Engineers get test results compared to pass/fail criteria within 5 minutes – enabling multiple rapid test cycles each day.
“We’re no longer wasting test time with manual spreadsheet reconciliation. Automated reports are the way. Now we stay focused on hardware, not screens.”
– Josh Allder, Maritime Test Engineer
2. Checklists Replace Manual Reviews
Vatn uses Nominal’s automated checklist system to validate acceptance tests without manual intervention:
Depth Mode Checks: Automated verification of subsurface navigation systems.
Speed Runs: Instant propulsion data analysis across surface, depth, and altitude conditions.
INS Navigation Validation: No manual wrangling – immediate analysis of navigation test data.
Automated checklists mean engineers spend less time parsing data, more time advancing hardware and scaling operations.
3. Fleet-Wide Test Visibility, Repeatable Results
Nominal indexes every test by mission parameters, weather, and fleet units – providing instant visibility into test trends across multiple vehicles. Deviations or anomalies trigger structured, collaborative investigations within Nominal Workbooks, eliminating scattered data across spreadsheets.
4. Preparing for Scale: Edge Analytics at Sea
Vatn currently uploads data after surfacing, but soon they’ll deploy Nominal Connect directly aboard chase vessels and test platforms. Edge analytics and real-time, automated acceptance tests will further increase daily test volume – squeezing additional outcomes every day on the water.
Concrete Results: Ready for Mass Manufacturing
Before Nominal
Hours to actionable test results
Manual data merges across spreadsheets
Single daily test
After Nominal
Under 5 minutes to validation
Fully automated pass/fail checklists
Dozens of test cycles daily
Why It Matters: Vatn is sprinting towards being a maritime market maker
Nominal identifies and partners early with startups like Vatn, betting on teams poised to become industry leaders within five years. Vatn’s accelerated testing and readiness for scaled production is proof:
Daily iterative advantage: Testing frequency is second-to-none, creating a clear market edge.
QA for mass production: Every AUV meets stringent field readiness criteria, validated automatically by Nominal’s pipeline.
Vatn punches way above their weight, running more tests per engineer than nearly any team we've seen. Their rapid daily iteration shows how fast you can move when you commit fully to continuous test across the stack – from system architecture through operational tools.
– Cameron McCord, CEO, Nominal
Vatn is ready to deliver capability today – at scale.