ACOMAR: An underwater robot for autonomous offshore inspection

Solution

• The partners in the ACOMAR (Auto Compact Marine Growth Remove) innovation project have developed a specially designed underwater robot capable of autonomously inspecting and removing marine growth.
• Marine growth complicates offshore inspections, which are essential for documenting the durability of platforms and foundations. These challenges are reduced by regularly removing the growth.
• In the North Sea alone, the industry currently spends hundreds of millions annually on removing marine growth. ACOMAR significantly reduces these costs, among other things by replacing divers with the underwater drone developed in the project.
• The technology can operate independently of the large, environmentally impactful vessels currently used for cleaning operations.

Impact

• ACOMAR is easy to transport offshore and requires fewer personnel for operation.
• The ACOMAR technology can be deployed directly from a wind turbine foundation or an oil and gas platform and only requires an available support function while the task is being carried out.
• The concept is expected to reduce cleaning costs by 30–40%.