Beam deploys first autonomous underwater vehicle for offshore wind farm inspection

Beam, a provider of high-technology offshore wind services, has deployed its first autonomous underwater inspection vehicle driven by AI.

In what Beam claims to be a world first, the underwater vehicle uses AI to carry out complex tasks without human intervention on offshore wind farms.

The technology has already been successfully utilised to inspect jacket structures at the Seagreen wind farm in Scotland, the world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm.

Previously, a human would have manually operated robotic underwater inspections remotely.

Beam said that with the autonomous robot and its ability to stream data back to shore, offshore workers can concentrate on more complex elements of their roles.

According to its data, the AI-driven robot reduces inspection timelines by 50%, cutting operational costs.

Beam said it also improves inspection data quality and enables 3D reconstruction of assets alongside visual data.

Beam will roll out the technology throughout 2025 and 2026.

“Automation can revolutionise how we carry out inspection and maintenance of offshore wind farms, helping to reduce costs and timelines,” said Beam’s CEO Brian Allen.

“Looking ahead to the future, the potential of this technology is huge for the industry, and success in these initial projects is vital for us to progress and realise this vision.”

Seagreen has been operational since October 2023 and is the world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm. As such, the success of Beam’s project provides important learnings for using autonomous tech on offshore wind superstructures, according to Allen.

“The data collected by Beam will be used to maintain operational reliability at the wind farm, providing insight into areas such as marine growth and any potential erosion at the foundations,” he added.

Seagreen Wind Farm is a joint venture partnership between energy firms SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies and PTTEP.

Matthew Henderson, technical asset manager, substructure and asset lifecycle at SSE Renewables, said: “Beam’s technology demonstrates that autonomous inspections can reduce the personnel we need to send offshore for planned inspections while speeding up planned works and collecting rich data sets to inform asset integrity planning.

As we move further offshore and into deeper waters, the ability to collect high-quality inspection data in a low-risk manner is imperative for us to deliver our Net Zero Acceleration Programme.”