(With videos) Kongsberg Maritime and Statoil have signed an agreement with Eelume, a NTNU spin-off company to develop swimming robots for subsea inspection and light intervention.
NTNU and Sintef have conducted research on snake robotics for more than ten years. Eelume is now developing a disruptive solution for underwater inspection and maintenance in the form of a swimming robot. The idea is to let these robots do inspection and light intervention jobs on the seabed, reducing the use of large and expensive vessels.
Snake-like Robots
With its snake-like form, the slender and flexible body of the Eelume robot provides access to confined areas that are difficult to access with existing technology.
Eelume robots will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and interventions. The solution can be installed on both existing and new fields where typical jobs include:
- visual inspection,
- cleaning, and
- adjusting valves and chokes.
These jobs account for a large part of the total subsea inspection and intervention spend.
Watch the videos below for more information on the robot, its workings and its different propulsion types (swimming motion and thrusters).
