The world’s first autonomous underwater vehicle driven by artificial intelligence (AI) has been deployed in Scotland.
The technology has been successfully used to inspect jacket structures on Seagreen wind farm - Scotland’s largest offshore site.
Beam, a leading provider of high-technology offshore wind services, hailed the achievement as a "groundbreaking milestone".
Bristol-based Beam said the cutting-edge technology "promises to revolutionise the field of marine technology and underwater robotics".
"By leveraging advanced AI, this technology can perform complex underwater tasks with no human intervention, significantly boosting the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of underwater inspections and surveys", the firm added.
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Beam plans to roll out the new technology across its fleet of DP2 vessels, ROVs and AUVs throughout 2025 and 2026.
Brian Allen, Beam CEO, stated: “We are very proud to have succeeded in deploying the world’s first autonomous underwater vehicle driven by AI. Automation can revolutionise how we carry out inspection and maintenance of offshore wind farms, helping to reduce both costs and timelines.
"Looking ahead to the future, the potential of this technology is huge for the industry, and success in these initial projects is vital for us to progress and realise this vision. This wouldn’t be possible without forward-thinking customers like SSE Renewables who are willing to go on the journey with us.”
A joint venture partnership between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies, Seagreen is Scotland’s largest and the world’s deepest fixed bottom offshore wind farm.
It has been operational since October 2023 and was one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in Scotland.
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Located approximately 27 kilometres off the coast of Angus, Seagreen has 114 turbines and is capable of generating enough green energy to power more than 1.6 million homes, equivalent to two-thirds of all Scottish homes.
Matthew Henderson, Technical Asset Manager – Substructure and Asset Lifecycle at SSE Renewables, said: “"At SSE, we have a mantra that "if it's not safe, we don't do it". Beam's technology demonstrates that autonomous inspections can reduce the personnel we need to send offshore for planned inspections, while speeding up planned works and collecting rich data-sets to inform asset integrity planning.
"As we move further offshore, and into deeper waters - the ability to collect high quality inspection data in a low-risk manner is imperative to us delivering our Net Zero Acceleration Programme."
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