Beneath the Surface: AI Powered Robotics for Sustainable Deep-Sea Operations

About this session

The deep ocean is vital to a sustainable future, yet it remains a technical abyss: no GPS, choked communications, and zero visibility. To operate in this extreme, high-pressure frontier, MOBY Robotics is developing autonomous systems, including seafloor crawlers, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), to enable environmentally responsible access to deep-ocean resources.This talk presents how MOBY Robotics integrates modern AI, advanced robotics, and rugged embedded systems to enable real-time perception, localization, and manipulation on the seafloor. It discusses the engineering behind robust subsea platforms, the deployment of lightweight onboard models, and the unique challenges of running edge-AI autonomy in low-visibility, high-pressure conditions, alongside the map-centric intelligence layer that turns raw dive data into actionable ocean insight.The talk will show how advances in machine learning and robotic autonomy are shifting the paradigm and unlocking new capabilities for high-fidelity exploration, sustainable resource collection, and large-scale subsea operations.