These maritime robots will be smarter, provide longer range, have greater endurance and cost less than today’s systems. They will completely or partially replace the need for ships or divers in many applications.

SMaRC contributes to global societal benefits in three important areas pertaining to the oceans:

• Ocean production – using the oceans’ potential for food, energy and raw materials such as cultivation of marine plants in large farms and mining of the ocean floor where robots will take the role as the workhorse of the sea running daily inspections, harvesting and maintaining production facilities
• Safeguarding society – to create situation awareness on the surface and in the water column by using one or several collaborating robots
• Environmental sensing – measuring physical, biological and chemical parameters to assess the state of the ocean and to detect both man-made and natural variations