Exail Robotics Belgium (ERB), formerly ECA Robotics Belgium, is part of Exail Technologies. ERB is a founding member of MCMLAB and assures co-direction next to NGB.
EXAIL is a leading high-tech industrial group specializing in cutting-edge robotics, maritime, navigation, aerospace and photonics technologies. Exail Robotics Belgium was founded in 2018, and after the award of the Belgian-Dutch rMCM program, it has grown to employ around 80 collaborators in 2024. Exail Robotics Belgium's seaside factory in Ostend was inaugurated in 2022. The company, as first mass production factory of the group out of France, will ensure the production, the maintenance & support, the R&D and the promotion of Exail Robotics's MCM toolbox system UMIS and its drones.
Here, the 12 MCM Toolboxes of the BENL program will be manufactured and supported, including integration of new capabilities.
ERB’s R&D department works on the development of important bricks for the rMCM program Toolbox, mainly on software, contributing on drone control, payloads integration on the Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), GPU development for our sonar UMISAS. Starting in 2021, ERB teams contributed during 2 years on the MIRICLE project. The work on this EDIDP project focused on feasibility studies and requirements definition for Toolbox 2.0 assets and capabilities, such as: improved mine identification, floating mines and surf-zone detection, buried mines detection, minefield instrumentation, USV improvements, interoperability, and toolbox’s data management.
ERB is also currently developing the SBSS (for Sub-bottom scanning sonar) a new low frequency sonar for buried mines detection and classification. The development work includes data fusion between acoustic with non-acoustic sensors for improved classification, data processing and artificial intelligence for ATD/ATR. This new system will be validated at the end of 2026 to be a new component of the Toolbox and a new payload for INSPECTOR 125 USV in the near future.
Would you like to help assemble, test, and deliver our drones to make our seas safer? Join our crew and apply for one of our vacancies!
Proven sectors of activity:
- MCM Toolbox “system of systems”: USV, AUV, UAV, ROV
- UMISOFT: mission management, drone control and data management (MM, DC and DM), including Artificial Intelligence
- Drone system engineering, development, fabrication, maintenance and testing
- Sensor and payloads integration
- Sonar development & GPU acceleration
