BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19. Italy’s Saipem has
announced that its advanced underwater inspection drone, FlatFish,
has successfully completed a key testing phase under a contract
awarded by Brazil’s Petrobras in 2023, marking significant progress
toward full offshore deployment, Trend reports via Saipem.
The completed stage included Functional Acceptance Tests
conducted in a controlled environment to verify that all system
capabilities — from mission autonomy to data quality — meet the
required technical and operational standards.
Following the successful outcome, Petrobras has approved the
transition to the final phase of the project, which envisages
full-scale deployment of the FlatFish technology in real offshore
conditions in Brazil’s ultra-deep waters.
The testing campaign took place at Saipem’s underwater drone
facility in Trieste, Italy, in the presence of Petrobras
representatives. During the trials, the drone demonstrated its full
operational capabilities, carrying out multiple fully autonomous
inspection missions. These included subsea structure and pipeline
inspections, cathodic protection measurements, and wall-thickness
assessments.
FlatFish is a hybrid, fully autonomous underwater inspection
drone developed within Saipem’s “Hydrone” program, which aims to
industrialize a new generation of subsea robots capable of
performing complex inspection tasks at depths of up to 3,000
meters.
Saipem said it continues to invest in cutting-edge underwater
robotics technologies, supporting applications ranging from shallow
waters to ultra-deep offshore environments, including both resident
and semi-resident deployment solutions.
The company highlighted that its long-term partnership with
Petrobras is playing a key role in advancing strategic capabilities
for the offshore energy sector.
