Underwater Robots · Part of The Humanoid Group

About Underwater Robots

Underwater Robots explains ROVs, AUVs and bio-inspired swimmers, and how they inspect, maintain and explore below the surface. The Humanoid Group publishes it for marine and offshore readers.

Sources we rely on

IMCA R 004: The safe and efficient operation of remotely operated vehicles (Rev. 6) — International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA).
Industry guidance on ROV classes, tools, crew roles and safe working practice for offshore operations.
Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) — NOAA Ocean Exploration.
How tethered ROVs are built, piloted from a ship and used to film and sample the deep sea.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) — NOAA Ocean Exploration.
How untethered AUVs run pre-planned missions and why several can be deployed at once to survey the seafloor.
2023 IMO Biofouling Guidelines (resolution MEPC.378(80)) — International Maritime Organization.
IMO guidance on managing ships' hull fouling, including biofouling management plans and records of hull cleaning.
NS 9415 Floating aquaculture farms: site survey, design, execution and use — Standard Norge.
Norwegian standard for fish farm structures, including inspection and maintenance duties set out in user handbooks.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): their past, present and future contributions to the advancement of marine geoscience — Marine Geology (Wynn et al.), via NERC Open Research Archive.
Open-access review of how AUVs raised the resolution of seafloor mapping and changed marine geoscience.
Our mission — The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project.
Explains the global effort to map the whole seafloor, with a running figure for how much is mapped so far.

ROVs vs AUVs — Tethered and piloted, or untethered and autonomous: how the two main vehicle types differ.
Inspection & Maintenance — Hulls, pipelines, harbour walls and fish farms: where underwater robots take on routine checks.
Research & Exploration — Mapping the seabed, sampling the ocean and reaching depths people cannot.
Bio-Inspired Swimmers — Robots that swim like fish, rays and eels, and what they could mean for underwater work.
ROV Pilot Training — How ROV pilots are trained and assessed, from offshore competence grades to small inshore teams.
Drones for Fish Farms — Net checks, mooring inspections and fish behaviour: how underwater drones fit into work on a fish farm.
Hull Cleaning and Biofouling — In-water hull cleaning robots, the biofouling rules behind them and what ports expect before cleaning starts.
Hobby Underwater Drones — Depth, tether, camera and handling: what to compare before buying an underwater drone for fun or filming.
Cable and Pipeline Inspection — How ROVs and AUVs follow and inspect subsea cables and pipelines, and what operators must record.
Latest updates — Offshore wind owners are buying more inspection work, research fleets are planning subsea docking, and hull robots are earning class approval. These figures and dated updates show where underwater robotics stands now.
About us — What we cover, how we source every figure, and who publishes this site.

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