Robotic submarines make waves in the oil and gas sector

At the time of writing, somewhere in the depths of the southern Indian Ocean, the Bluefin-21, an advanced unmanned submarine operated by the US Navy, is probing the seabed for signs of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Bristling with some of the most advanced underwater imaging and navigation systems available, the Torpedo-shaped vessel represents perhaps one of the best chances of finding out what happened to the missing airliner.

While its operators hope it will emulate the similar vessel that famously located the Air France flight lost off the Brazilian coast in 2009, experts admit that the odds of success are slim: the search corridor is dauntingly huge and the water 4,500m deep or more in places. It could, one specialist told The Engineer, take decades to map the area currently being looked at.

But whether or not the high-tech submersible helps solve the mystery of what happened to Flight MH370, its headline-grabbing cameo has thrown the spotlight on a rarely glimpsed area of technology that’s fast becoming indispensable for anyone with a stake  in the marine environment: the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).