Work Class ROV
This is a subsea Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV), this is what the offshore industry uses to inspect pipelines, subsea cables, oil platform structures, subsea wellheads.
ROVs are much larger than you might think. They’re about the size of a mini bus.
They get lifted over the side of a ship with an “A-Frame” and lowered into the sea with a Tether Management System (TMS).
You lower the ROV TMS down to the bottom of the sea with a crane wire that runs over the A-Frame and at or near the seabed the ROV will fly away from the TMS and head off to its planned destination to do whatever work it is doing.
The ROV typically has 2 large hydraulic manipulators on the front of it along with lots of cameras and it behaves lift a giant crab able to pick things up and turn valves open / closed.
ROVs are neutrally buoyant and surprisingly agile under the control of a skilled pilot. They can complete a large variety of tasks without risking the life of a diver.
These things have existed for around 30 years now and have been used all over the world for much of that time. Even down to depths of 3,000 meters.
A lot of the work is surveys, repair and maintenance but there’s also a lot of construction work and increasingly decommissioning work too.
Huge cost savings available in the automation of these capabilities, but not an easy thing to do.