Russia’s developing a nautical robotics cluster in its Far East. A specialized design bureau to do related R&D has already been established, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Georgy Antsev, the CEO and Chief Designer of Morinformsistema-Agat, a sizable company in Russia’s shipbuilding sector.

“We’re setting up the Far East cluster on the premises of our subsidiaries—the Hydrophysics Institute on the Kamchatka Peninsula and electronics maker Izumrud in Vladivostok. We have established a specialized design bureau to work on underwater nautical robotics. We have also signed agreements with the Primorsky Region administration and the Far East Federal University to advance this field of research,” RIA Novosti quoted Mr. Antsev as saying.

The Morinformsistema-Agat top manager underscored that “in fact, the cluster is already operational.”

“We have created a competencies center and later this year are establishing research laboratories based on the campus of the Far East Federal University. We have brought on board young teams of innovators to do in-house R&D, for which our company has allocated funds from our profits,” the company CEO said.

The Morinformsistema-Agat corporation is a key asset in Russia’s shipbuilding industry for IT systems and technology development.