UK develops robot to prevent undersea sabotage

The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has trialed an underwater robot which can prevent adversaries from sabotaging undersea cables and pipelines by disarming or removing threats.

The government department and industry partners have adapted a commercially available remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to deal with sabotage threats and clear legacy unexploded ordnance. The robot can operate at depths greater than divers can reach, and it can also work there safely for much longer.

The new technology and systems developed will work in partnership with other robots to scan the seabed for hazards and will be able to deal with them once one is spotted. The robot can be launched from a ship or a shoreline and is operated remotely, feeding video and sonar images back to the operators. They will then be able to remotely deal with underwater threats and hazards in relative safety.

Read more at Dstl