How AI and Robotics can Support Marine Mining

Abstract

Marine Mining initiatives open up a completely new field of subsea operations. Offshore oil and gas sites are still primarily located in areas, where divers can support maintenance and repair, while future marine mining will take place in greater depths and with a complexity of machines that require support from robotic systems equipped with a substantial amount of artificial intelligence. At the Robotics Innovation Center, a department of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), technologies are being developed that have the potential to support marine mining in all stages from prospection to decommissioning. Various robotic technologies from systems, subsea-residence operation, inspection manipulation as well as autonomy are presented in the following chapters. Finally, a proposition for a robotic mining system is presented, that strives for minimal invasiveness of the marine environment.