Beam, a UK-based scaleup, has successfully launched the world’s first autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) driven by AI. This mini-sub can perform complex underwater tasks with no human intervention, thanks to its advanced AI model that can spot issues like erosion.
The underwater drone is equipped with edge AI, which means the AI model is deployed inside the device, rather than linking to it via the cloud. This allows the AUV to work even without WiFi, which is critical for underwater operations. The AI model was trained on a massive dataset collected from previous offshore projects and inspections, and it can make real-time decisions without human intervention.
Beam recently put the underwater drone through its paces at Seagreen, the world’s deepest fixed bottom offshore wind farm located off the coast of Scotland. In one day, the AUV successfully surveyed the entire foundation of a wind turbine fixed to the seabed 58 meters under the surface.
Using AI-driven AUVs could slash inspection times and free up humans for more complex tasks. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the maintenance of offshore wind turbines, which are battered by waves and corrosion.
Beam will be rolling out the new autonomous technology across its fleet of survey vessels, remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs), and AUVs throughout 2025 and 2026. This is an exciting development in the field of clean tech and energy.