The CIAM-project aims to solve a key problem of unmanned submersible vehicles, namely that AUVs have so far required large, costly support vessels, in addition to high risks associated with flooding the AUVs and retrieving them from the sea again. To date, in addition to the availability of skilled personnel, the availability of suitable vessels and AUVs has been a challenge, especially in urgent operational and emergency situations. 

As a solution, two innovative new-class AUVs controlled by artificial intelligence should be designed, produced and tested. These should be able to achieve particularly long mission durations and ranges, enable fully autonomous coast-to-coast operations, be capable of deep-sea operations and still be relatively light.

Within this project, Aequonics (the subsea brand of FormLED GmbH) concentrates on the pressure tolerant electronic assemblies including the (back-up) energy supply system, propulsion, camera and LED-lightning system.

The project is managed by Rosen Group, a leading global service provider for in-line inspections of pipelines.

Project partners: INNOMAR, balticFuelCells GmbH, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI), Technical University Berlin, HafenCity University Hamburg, the University Medical Center Freiburg, GEOMAR.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.