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.
What moved below the waterline this year.
2–4 km² of seabed a HUGIN 6000 AUV can map per hour, diving to 6,000 meters (Ocean News & Technology, 2026)
80–90% of offshore inspection costs come from vessels and crews, Bubble says (Robotics & Automation News, 2026)
540 m² of hull cleaned per hour by Greensea IQ's EverClean robots, typically (Marine Technology News, 2026)
Kongsberg to build an underwater AUV hangar for Inkfish's new research ship
· Partnership
Kongsberg Maritime will supply an AUV hangar and launch and recovery system for a research vessel that VARD is building for Inkfish. It lets HUGIN AUVs launch, recover and dock below the surface through a moonpool. Assembly and testing take place in Brattvåg, Norway, with delivery planned for the end of 2027.
Why it matters: Launch and recovery through the wave zone is where many AUV missions get cut short. Docking below the surface stretches the weather window, which changes how many survey days a vehicle actually delivers each year.
Omega Subsea signs a five-year deal to run ROVs on two NKT cable-laying ships
· Deployment
Norway's Omega Subsea will mobilize ROV systems on NKT's cable layers NKT Victoria and NKT Eleonora under a five-year agreement. Four of eight new Kystdesign ROVs due in 2026 will serve NKT work, Victoria starts before year-end, and Omega expects its fleet to pass 30 systems by mid-2028.
Why it matters: Subsea power cables for offshore wind need ROVs for trenching support, touchdown monitoring and burial checks. Long cable programs are turning ROV capacity into multi-year commitments, so lead times for vehicles and launch systems matter.
Vattenfall tenders ROV inspection and seabed surveys across its offshore wind farms
· Market
Vattenfall launched a tender, estimated at EUR 8 million, for ROV inspections and multibeam seabed surveys at its offshore wind farms in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. It plans to appoint up to five ROV suppliers and seven survey suppliers on two-year frameworks, with services starting in June 2027.
Why it matters: Wind farm owners are moving subsea inspection onto recurring framework contracts. Operators who can show proven vehicles, trained pilots and clean inspection data are better placed for these multi-supplier rounds.
Review maps how fish, octopus and tuna shape the next soft underwater robots
· Research
A review in npj Robotics led by Peking University sorts bio-inspired underwater soft robots by four swimming strategies, from tail-driven cruising to jet bursts. It notes soft materials used in these robots match the stiffness range of animal skin and muscle, and argues robots can also help biologists test how animals swim.
Why it matters: Bio-inspired swimmers remain mostly lab platforms. Knowing which propulsion style suits cruising, hovering or tight maneuvers helps research teams judge which designs could graduate to quiet, low-disturbance survey work.
Bubble Robotics raises $5 million for resident offshore inspection robots
· Funding
Swiss startup Bubble Robotics, founded in 2025 by former NASA and ETH Zürich engineers, raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures, Asterion Ventures and Norrsken Evolve. It plans robots that stay at sea year-round, offered as a service, and reports over $4 million in signed letters of intent.
Why it matters: Resident robots offered as a service move inspection spending from vessel days to subscriptions. Comparing that model against buying or leasing, as THG Flex lays out, helps operators see which suits their asset base.
Hull-cleaning robots gain class approval and shorten cleaning jobs to hours
· Milestone
Marine Technology News reports Lloyd's Register granted Jotun's HullSkater a Recognized Enhanced Antifouling Type Approval, covering robot and coating together. Greensea IQ's EverClean robots typically clean about 540 square meters an hour, and in one test cleaned a hull in roughly six hours instead of a week.
Why it matters: Class approval gives shipowners a paper trail for robotic hull care. Checking crawler size, power supply and port rules first, the kind of detail a Site Readiness Survey covers, avoids surprises at the quay.