Where it works
Energy, internet and trade: the three things the world can’t run without. Same brain in every robot, only where it lives changes. See how it works below.
Power and desalination intakes
Gravelines, 10–11 Aug 2025. Jellyfish blocked the cooling-water filters. Four of six reactors shut down.
Nuclear Engineering International, Aug 2025The sonar sees the swarm coming hours early. The plant cuts load on its own terms instead of tripping.
Oil jetties and pipelines
Huntington Beach, 2021. Ships' anchors dragged an oil pipeline out of place in January. Nobody knew until it leaked in October, over eight months later. About $160M in damage.
US National Transportation Safety BoardThe pipeline is checked the day the anchor drops, not eight months later.
Offshore platforms and wind
In offshore wind, an estimated 85% of the value of insurance claims comes from subsea cables.
Global Underwater Hub, 2023Cables are swum on a schedule. The field is checked when the operator wants, not when a ship is free.
Cable landings and nearshore cables
Gulf of Finland, 25 Dec 2024. A tanker's anchor cut Estlink 2 and four telecom cables. The power cable was out until late June 2025.
Fingrid and Finnish police, 2024 Estlink 2 incident recordThe damage is marked within hours. The repair ship sails straight to it.
Cable routes on the shelf
Gulf of Finland, Dec 2024. The anchor's drag mark, tens of kilometres long and possibly nearly 100, was only found by underwater survey four days after the cables were cut.
Finnish police, via Meduza and ERRThe change shows up on the next scheduled map, next to the last one.
Deep cable routes and repairs
Tonga, Jan 2022. An eruption broke the only international cable in several places. Tonga was largely cut off for five weeks, with only a trickle of satellite access.
The Record and NPR, Feb 2022The breaks are marked before the repair ship arrives, so it goes straight to them.
Ports and harbours
Fujairah, 12 May 2019. Divers most likely put limpet mines on four tankers at anchor. Nobody saw them.
UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway to the UN Security Council, Jun 2019The sonar sees a diver hundreds of metres out. The hull gets checked before the ship sails.
Naval harbours and approaches
Black Sea, Sep 2022. Drifting mines threatened shipping. A Romanian minesweeper sent to destroy one off Constanța was hit by it.
Maritime Executive, Sep 2022A drifting mine is spotted as it arrives. No crew in the minefield, nothing on the surface to hit.
Mine checks on routes
German waters hold about 1.6 million tonnes of old munitions. Wind farm and cable routes are surveyed and cleared of munitions before building.
German Federal Ministry for the EnvironmentThe clearance team goes straight to the marked contacts.
Deliver into contested zones
Strait of Hormuz, 2026: effectively closed since the war in Iran began. Oil through it fell nearly 30% in the first three months of the year.
US EIA, via Bloomberg, May 2026Taiwan imports about 97% of its energy, almost all by sea. Its legal minimum gas stock is 11 days. In a blockade, every tanker heading there can be seen.
Taiwan News; Taipei Times, Mar 2026April 2025: the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit asked for undersea vehicles that carry payloads over 1,000 nautical miles in contested environments. In its words: "Current UUV capabilities present limitations in range and payload capacity."
USNI News, Apr 2025March 2026: it asked again, for low-profile boats to carry 18,000 lb of cargo 2,000 nm into contested waters.
DefenseScoop, Mar 2026Second Thomas Shoal, 2023 to 2024. Boats resupplying the Philippine garrison were water-cannoned and rammed. Sailors were injured.
USNI News, Apr 2024The pod travels deep and is set down in the shallows for the garrison's divers. Nothing on the surface to hit.