Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a deal with the Underwater Centre in Scotland to test an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a robot arm designed to inspect undersea pipelines. The 15-day trial, scheduled to start in October, will focus on verifying the robot arm's capacity to track a pipeline continuously as the AUV moves under tidal conditions. In addition to testing its ability to navigate through water, the team is also looking at how it can be used for other purposes.
Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a deal with the Underwater Centre in Scotland to test an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a robot arm designed to inspect undersea pipelines. The 15-day trial, scheduled to start in October, will focus on verifying the robot arm's capacity to track a pipeline continuously as the AUV moves under tidal conditions. Kawasaki has already developed an AUV that can charge underwater and transfer inspection data to its mother ship while locating and tracking pipelines, including lines buried beneath sediment.