'Swarms' of drones to help find and destroy underwater explosives

‘Swarms’ of underwater drones will locate thousands of tonnes of submerged explosives after a company’s deal with the US Navy.

The US Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center awarded $78,000 to Aquabotix to find a solution to the blight of unexploded underwater ordnance.

The solution will be combined with the company’s SwarmDiver robots, small submarine drones designed to operate in groups as “single, coordinated entities”.

Human operators on the surface control the groups of 75cm-long bots, which can dive to 50m to collect information. Weighing just 1.7kg, they can travel at up to 4.3 knots and have a battery life of 2.5 hours. 

The company previously said the machines could “overwhelm” military targets, but the navy hopes to use them for more altruistic aims.

Unexploded ordnance from previous conflicts is found in shallow waters around the globe, and can explode even decades later. A study by Texas A&M University estimated that there are more than 13.6 million kilograms of explosives in the Gulf of Mexico alone. To avoid accidental detonation, the explosives must be found and neutralised.

Current methods of detecting and locating unexploded ordnance are time-consuming and expensive. Aquabotix hopes to provide a reusable and cheap solution.

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