But unlike NASA's workmanlike retriever, the Navy wants a guard dog that can approach pirates and drug runners with an attitude.
And on Thursday, a version of it was prowling the waters off Naval Station Norfolk.
It is one of more than 90 technologies included in a grand-scale sea experiment known as Trident Warrior 09, which examines the latest combat tools with the aim of speeding development to the battlefield.
It is being directed by Naval Network Warfare Command in Little Creek.
Trident Warrior officially gets under way next week off the coast of Virginia, but officials staged the Thursday demonstration for reporters who watched from the docked USS Nassau, an amphibious assault ship.
The focus of the demonstration was a small watercraft powered by high-tech software that allows it to operate without humans on board. (For test purposes, the craft had a crew to ensure safety and gather data.)
The ship was given a mission: protect an area and check out anything that gets too close. It did the rest on its own.
Under cloudy skies, it sped toward a small, commercial craft that strayed into its space, chased it away, and then did a drive-by for the benefit of the media.
The software — NASA-developed and taxpayer-owned — can "think" on its own and adjust on the fly. It can avoid obstacles and classify ships by scanning them with a special camera and cross-checking with a database.
Then it can transmit data back to commanders who decide what happens next.
"This is leading the Navy and, I would argue, leading the world," said Eric Hansen of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the program manager for the unmanned surface vehicle project.
One obvious benefit of an unmanned patrol drone is safety. It can take photos and gather data from potentially dangerous ships without risking lives, Hansen said. It can zoom in on an innocent-looking fishing boat — off the coast of Somalia, for instance — to see if the crew is carrying AK-47s or rocket-propelled grenades.
But unlike aerial drones that require a human pilot, you don't need someone back at headquarters jiggling a remote control.
It does not fire weapons, but its intelligence-gathering capabilities can be versatile, said Rick Simon, director of Spatial Integrated Systems Inc., which collaborated on the project.
SIS can teach the Rover software how to sweep for mines, tow a probe to detect drug-running submarines or escort ships and investigate craft that get too close.
The unmanned craft will be tested further next week during Trident Warrior 09, which will involve more than 5,600 people, from sailors to academics.
Besides the United States, participating countries include Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. France will be an observer.
"We are exploring the art of the possible," said Capt. Carl R. Conti II, director of innovation and experimentation at Naval Network Warfare Command.
It can take up to three years to get a technology into the field, but Conti said there is also value in seeing what doesn't work.
"Sometimes experiments fail, and that's OK," he said, "because it might be a cost avoidance issue."
Trident Warrior
What is it? A grand-scale sea experiment involving more than 90 technologies that examines the latest combat tools with the aim of speeding development to the battlefield.Who's in charge? It is being directed by Naval Network
Warfare Command in Little Creek.
What's on the cutting edge? Unmanned drone watercraft powered by high-tech software.
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