Prospects for Applying Automation/Robotization of Underwater Foundation Work

In recent years, major marine engineering works have led to be executed in deep waters with severe waves far out at sea, while there has been increased demand for improved construction efficiency, accuracy, safety and economy.In this paper, underwater foundation work at great depths and in soft ground is considered as one of the technologies in marine civil engineering work, and an attempt is made to examine its automation and robotization. The examination covers marine survey robots, deep-water mixing robots for ground improvement, and rubble mound levelling robots.The problems existing under present conditions are examined along with themes that need be tackled in the future. “Near future” designs for each robot type mentioned above are presented and in addition, “future shape.” By considering such future shape, as shown in Fig. 1 for example, the action required now can be made clearer.