Marine mining initiatives open a new field of subsea operations. Offshore oil and gas sites are still located primarily in areas where divers can support maintenance and repair requirements, but future marine mining will take place in greater depths and with a complexity of machines that requires support from robotic systems equipped with a substantial amount of artificial intelligence (AI). Technologies are being developed that have the potential to support marine mining in all stages from prospection to decommissioning. These developments will likely have substantial influence in the oil and gas industry, itself searching for ways to maximize exploitation of assets.
Robotic Systems Under Current Development
Increasing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Intelligence. Commercial off-the-shelf AUVs rely mostly on acoustic and inertial sensors for their navigation. Speed measurements from a Doppler velocity log are combined with orientation values from gyroscopes and accelerometers to estimate current position.
