A new €2 million underwater robot has been launched by the University of Limerick.
The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is to be used for inspection, repair and maintenance of offshore marine energy facilities.
The robotic submarine, which has been named Étaín, is capable of operating in difficult tidal, wave and wind conditions.
The commercially available vehicle was purchased by the university using a grant from Science Foundation Ireland then enhanced by researchers at the Centre for Robotics and Intelligence Systems.
They have installed their own software to improve its control, navigation, imaging and sonar systems.
"Operation support in the MRE sector usually occurs on floating infrastructures so conditions are regularly beyond the capability and operating limits of commercial ROV technology," said Professor Daniel Toal, Director of the Centre for Robotics and Intelligence Systems at UL.
"This means new smart ROV systems capability is necessary and that is what our team at UL has developed and launched today."
The robotics centre at UL is part of the Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) centre led by University College Cork.
MaREI partners include Shannon Foynes Port Company, ESB, Ireland's National Space Centre, SonarSim, Teledyne, Resolve Marine, CIL and IDS Monitoring.
