Wireless robot drone for underwater operations

Particularly in the case of high-profile events such as the blown-up Nord Stream pipelines a few months ago, it is necessary to go underwater to see exactly what has happened. Underwater inspections are now essential in many industries, whether in the oil and gas industry, hydropower plants, offshore wind farms or aquaculture. However, inspections are often carried out by conventional methods, such as using divers or bulky robots connected by cable to a pilot on land. However, these methods are costly and require precise piloting, a lot of energy, and complex maneuvers are fundamentally limited.

In recent years, Swiss startup Hydromea has become a leading provider of underwater technology. The company's successes are based on several innovative platform technologies that are offered as stand-alone products on the market.

Passion for oceans and robotics

Out of a passion for oceans and robotics, Alexander Bahr, a German, had already begun developing the first prototype of a drone capable of moving underwater in Australia almost twenty years ago. A project he continued in Switzerland, where he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

In 2014, he founded the startup Hydromea together with his compatriot Felix Schill - also a postdoc at EPFL: Their goal was to develop underwater robots and bring them to market.

The drones, which are about 70 centimeters long, are capable of moving to a depth of about 300 meters. Their operating time is six hours. The original goal of the two researchers was to develop these vehicles for research use at universities, research centers and companies to collect different types of data: Water temperature, oxygen levels, turbidity, acidity or salinity of the water, and concentrations of chlorophyll, algae, bacteria or pollutants.

Underwater Blue Light

Unlike aerial drones, underwater drones cannot be easily remotely controlled by radio frequency systems or located by global positioning systems (GPS). While it is possible to use acoustic waves to transmit signals, communication is severely limited due to delays and slow transmission speeds. For this reason, it is not possible to remotely control underwater robots. Even video transmission is difficult because the transmission speed is only a few kilobits per second.

Hydromea has therefore developed the first underwater WLAN network. Powerful LED lights are used for data transmission. Underwater drones are connected to a modem that projects blue beams similar to a flashlight. Blue is the color that can best penetrate water.

The Luma underwater modem is thus Hydromea's most significant product, as it can transmit information at the speed of light at depths of 6000 meters.With a transmission rate of 10 Mbps and low power consumption, Luma can stream HD video in real time and is considered one of the leading technologies in this field. In 2022, Luma accounted for about 80% of Hydromea's revenue.

Diskdrive is equally a significant product of the Swiss manufacturer. A hubless thruster that offers an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio. These water-lubricated thrusters can be manufactured in various sizes and open up interesting application possibilities in sensitive environments.

Both products, Luma and Diskdrive, are key technologies for the company's semi-autonomous Exray drone. The Exray drone can be equipped with various sensors and tools and is ideal for measuring metal corrosion and performing small maintenance tasks. The drone is currently in an advanced pilot stage with well-known industrial companies such as DOW and Total Energy and is expected to be commercially available in the second half of 2023.

Little competition

There is currently little competition in the underwater drone industry. The two established players in the market are Australia's Advanced Navigation and Norway's Transmark Subsea. While Advanced Navigation is primarily active in research and the environmental sector, Transmark Subsea focuses on aquaculture. However, the Norwegian company has purchased technologies to bring its drones to market faster, which could lead to a loss of complete control.

Hydromea is in a good position technologically to compete with these suppliers with a technological edge. In particular, Hydromea's vision of using swarms of underwater drones for recurring inspections, as well as selling underwater data collected through its network of fixed Luma devices, are promising.

Big future plans

Hydromea is focused on the offshore energy and hydropower markets. Due to aging infrastructure and expected frequent inspections and maintenance in this area, there is great potential for the company. Additional markets could also be in the defense or security sector, where there is always great interest in robotic and drone technology.

In addition, Hydromea plans to offer "Robots as a Service" (RaaS), which is another step towards efficiency and profitability. With these innovations, Hydromea has the opportunity to dominate the limited competition in the underwater drone industry.

Hydromea has big plans for the future. To meet the challenges, the Swiss company plans to raise a total of 5 million Swiss francs in capital in 2023 through equity, subsidies and loans. The company already generates sales of around 1 million francs from its own intellectual property and expects to double that in the current year. The company valuation of Hydromea is in the double-digit range and is interesting for investors and venture capitalists who want to participate in promising technologies.