Autonomous Aquatic Inspection and Intervention (A2I2)

Underwater robots will learn to navigate and work safely around critical infrastructure without human control, using onboard intelligence to avoid collisions. The problem is that current underwater robots struggle to operate near sensitive structures like nuclear storage ponds, offshore wind turbines, and oil and gas platforms. They rely heavily on human pilots or pre-programmed paths, which limits their usefulness in hazardous or hard-to-reach environments. A2I2 aims to give these robots enough autonomy to position themselves, navigate, and perform physical tasks—such as taking sediment cores from the seabed or inspecting wet nuclear fuel storage ponds—without crashing into the surrounding equipment. If the project succeeds, offshore renewable energy installations could be inspected and maintained more cheaply and safely, reducing the need for human divers in dangerous conditions. Nuclear decommissioning tasks, which currently require extensive remote handling, could become faster and more reliable. The same technology could also support environmental monitoring, underwater infrastructure repair, and search operations. The two demonstrator use-cases—coring and pond inspection—are deliberately different, so the underlying autonomy system should transfer to multiple commercial and scientific markets.