Resident Subsea Robotic Systems: A Review

Abstract

Abstract Recent years have seen growing interest within the offshore technology sector in subsea vehicles designed for deployment not from a manned surface ship but autonomously from offshore infrastructure. While diverse in morphology and proposed concepts of operations, all such vehicles leverage the ability to remain resident at a site of interest to offer novel operational capabilities and reduce the reliance on manned surface ships for offshore intervention. This article considers the core design properties and motivations of resident underwater vehicles, both as expressed by the nascent commercial systems as well as the current state in academic research and noncommercial research and development (R&D). The goal is to provide a comprehensive, although nonexhaustive, review of the current resident underwater vehicle systems, core challenges in successful system deployment, and the recent development and opportunities in resident autonomy.