How Underwater Drones Can Promote the Environmental Sustainability of Offshore Natural Resources Exploitation

Abstract

Abstract As the world shifts at fast pace towards new energy scenarios, the offshore environment is attracting extensive new project developments that pose new challenges in the management and the protection of marine ecosystems. In parallel, the recent geopolitical situation has exposed the compelling need to guarantee the integrity of subsea critical energy infrastructure calling for new paradigms to efficiently perform complex periodic inspections and intervention tasks. All these factors are driving a rapid evolution of subsea robotics, enabled by the advancement of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which have now reached a sufficient maturity level for industrial deployment. Within these innovation scenarios, underwater intervention / inspection drones (UIDs) are rising to offer the most promising answers to the needs of the offshore industry. This new family of underwater robots presenting AUV/ROV hybrid capabilities, enable new attractive operational paradigms that are already being positively recognized by the offshore industry. The use of UIDs, particularly when permanently integrated into fields (topside or as subsea resident) could greatly contribute to reducing the costs and risks normally associated with subsea inspection activities. The scope of this paper is to offer an overview of UIDs and provide the necessary elements to take full advantage of this technology, supporting the environmental sustainability of future offshore projects and activities. The investigation provided, explores conventional applications for oil and gas and then extends to future new energies, deep-sea mining and CO2 capture and storage projects. The analysis starts from UIDs state-of-the-art technology and moves to explore possible application scenarios in the attempt to anticipate possible solutions and related technical gaps.