By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY, July 16 (Reuters) - An Australian AI startup developing software for crewless boats said it has been granted one of the first AUKUS exemption licences by the Australian government, allowing it to share information with defence contractors in the U.S. and Britain.

Defence officials have said Australia will rely more on autonomous systems to protect its vast coastline and up to 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million sq km) of northern ocean, even as it spends billions on nuclear-powered submarines.

Australia, the United States and Britain removed significant barriers on defence trade in August through an exemption to the U.S. International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, designed to speed up construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) pact.

The co-founder of the Greenroom Robotics startup, former Royal Australian Navy engineer Harry Hubbert, told Reuters the licence exemption will also speed up the company's collaboration on autonomous vessel trials with defence companies in Britain and the United States.

Greenroom's software acts like "the brain of a vessel", he said, emulating what a helmsman or navigator would do by talking to the rudder, engine and radar systems on board.

Trials of the software have been conducted on boats ranging from a one-metre long research vessel to an offshore patrol boat, he said.

Greenroom has a partnership with navy shipbuilder Austal Australia ASB.AX and has also worked with British company Subsea Craft on a tactical water vessel, Hubbert said.

Greenroom's software is dual-use, and can also be applied to help vessels monitor for whales, he added.

"The opportunity with AUKUS is that we can enter U.S. and UK markets but also expand the horizon," he said.

With around 80% of the ocean floor uncharted to modern standards, autonomous vessels can gather information that helps ocean research, national security needs and sea-borne trade, he said.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

((Kirsty.Needham@thomsonreuters.com;))