A Preview of HoloOcean 2.0

HoloOcean 2.0 is an evolution of a well-regarded academic simulator from the BYU FRoSt Lab. Its defensibility lies in the extreme difficulty of simulating underwater environments accurately—specifically sonar (imaging, profiling, side-scan) and fluid hydrodynamics—which are far more niche than terrestrial or aerial robotics. While the 'Preview' repo currently shows low engagement (0 stars, 6 forks), this likely represents a pre-release state or a specific paper artifact; the broader HoloOcean ecosystem is a benchmark in marine robotics research. The primary competition comes from older Gazebo-based tools (UUV Simulator) or high-end commercial software like Stonefish. Frontier labs (OpenAI/Google) have zero strategic interest in the underwater domain, and while NVIDIA Isaac Sim is a general threat, it lacks the specific underwater acoustic physics that HoloOcean specializes in. The 3+ year displacement horizon reflects the slow-moving but high-barrier nature of marine robotics R&D.