Latest Progress in Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs) for More Strategic Investments
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By David Levy, Deeptech Expert
What is going on?
Underwater autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are a class of autonomous robots designed to operate underwater without direct human intervention. They come in various shapes and sizes, from compact, torpedo-like vehicles to larger remotely operated submersibles. Their primary applications range from scientific research to commercial use, military operations, and environmental monitoring.
What does it mean?
Traditionally, oceanographic research relied on human-occupied vehicles (HOVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that required skilled pilots to operate. These methods were costly, logistically challenging, and often limited the amount of data that could be collected. Along with the technological advancements in navigational systems, data science, and robotics, UAVs have made highly impressive feats in the past decades, overcoming the cons of traditional vehicles.
Why does it matter?
UAVs have allowed for a significant expansion of scientific discovery, bringing to our knowledge marine species we have never seen before, as well as entire ecosystems in the deep sea.
As climate change threatens marine environments, underwater drones play a vital role in monitoring and preserving fragile ecosystems. They assess the health of coral reefs, track the movement of endangered species, detect pollution and illegal fishing activities.
Commercial exploration has also benefited from autonomous vehicles by reducing costs, improving safety and increasing productivity for companies engaged in offshore oil and gas extraction, deep-sea mining and aquaculture.
UAVs also play a role in national security. They help enhance maritime border security and defense.
💸For markets & Society:
The global Underwater Drone market size was valued at 353 million us dollars in 2022 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 46.59% during the forecast period, reaching 3.5 trillion us dollars by 2028.
Canadian-based company Deep Trekker designs and provides state-of-the-art underwater ROVs for a variety of needs, including search and rescue, infrastructure, energy and notably, aquaculture.
Their products are user-friendly and allow, in the field of aquaculture for instance, a more sustainable practice. Such measures include the monitoring for fish health, the repair of nets, and sample analysis of the immediate environment. Aquaculture is poised to improve global food security, and help reduce our global footprint, provided it is managed sustainably.
Saildrones are wind and solar-powered autonomous surface vehicles which make cost-effective ocean data collection possible at scale. On October 17, 2023, Saildrone, a California-based company announced a major milestone: Its fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) has surpassed an incredible cumulative distance of 1,000,000 nautical miles, deployed on missions around the globe.
Saildrones provide intelligence ranging from maritime security to mapping, to earth system processes such as weather forecasting, carbon cycling, global fishing, and climate change.
In 2023, Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled the unmanned submarine BlueWhale. It uses sonar to gather intelligence and detect mines, and has the capacity to submerge for up to four weeks. BlueWhale uses radar and electro-optical systems, and detects sea and coastal targets. It is also equipped with dedicated sonars to enable the detection of both manned and unmanned submarines, and map mines on the seabed.
Another leader in underwater vehicle design and engineering is BlueRobotics. It offers state-of-the art UAVs with a price range.
🔮What’s next?
The future of unmanned underwater vehicles is brimming with exciting possibilities, as AI, miniaturization, collaboration, biomimicry, and alternative energy sources continue to shape the field. Radio communication among robots on land, for example, is well developed. However, this technology does not yet perform well underwater. Hence, robotics advancements in the collaboration of such devices are poised to greatly change the game for UAVs. As we continue to unlock the secrets of the deep, underwater drones will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in our journey to thrive, understand, and protect the world’s oceans.
✨ That’s all for today. Thanks for reading !
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