Saipem
About
About Saipem
Saipem's Hydrone platform shares navigation, communications, inspection tools, data management, subsea garages and charging infrastructure across three underwater vehicles. FlatFish performs long-range autonomous surveys of pipelines, risers and structures; Hydrone-R combines autonomous inspection with light robotic intervention; and the 180-kilowatt Hydrone-W is an all-electric work-class ROV for heavy manipulation and maintenance.
Vehicles can launch from shore or surface facilities, or remain resident on the seabed for remote missions without a dedicated support vessel. Hydrone-R is operating under a ten-year life-of-field contract at Equinor's Njord field and has exceeded 200 continuous days submerged. FlatFish has completed autonomous structure and pipeline inspections, cathodic-protection measurements and wall-thickness assessment in deep-water testing, while Hydrone-W has completed testing and is ready for field mobilisation.
Articles
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- Unplugged
Inbound - Power Communications - Unplugged supplies subsea charging and communications interface for Saipem Hydrone-R resident subsea drone
Source
Timeline
Events
- 2026-03-19 - Capability - Saipem's FlatFish underwater drone completes Petrobras test campaign and advances to the final project stage
Saipem announced that FlatFish successfully completed its offshore test campaign with Petrobras. The milestone moved the project into its final stage and validated autonomous underwater inspection performance in the target operating environment. The result strengthens Saipem's case for FlatFish as a serious deepwater autonomous inspection system.
Source - 2025-01-24 - Deployment - Unplugged supports 240-day Hydrone-R residency at Njord
Hydrone-R was recovered on 24 January 2025 after remaining deployed from 20 May 2024 at about 330 metres depth. The vehicle completed untethered autonomous inspection and leak-detection work while continuing its normal drill-support duties. A Blue Logic docking station used Unplugged inductive charging and communications so the vehicle could recharge and offload data on the seabed.
Source - 2024-06-05 - Deployment - Unplugged enables 167-day subsea drone residency at Njord
Hydrone-R completed more than 280 docking and undocking actions during the continuous subsea period. The residency included more than 10 autonomous missions and 35 manipulations, including valve opening and closing. Unplugged designed the inductive couplers installed in both the charging station and the underwater intervention drone.
Source - 2023-01-19 - Contract Award - Saipem wins Petrobras contract to develop and test FlatFish-based autonomous underwater inspection solution offshore Brazil
Saipem reported a Petrobras contract for the development and testing of an autonomous underwater inspection robotic solution based on its fleet of underwater drones, starting from FlatFish. The scope also included qualification of autonomous drone-based inspection services aimed at future offshore inspection contract options in Brazil. Saipem described the award as the most important contract award of the first half of 2023 within that reporting period.
Source - 2022-08-10 - Partnership - Saipem and OSRL expand services agreement to include deployment of FlatFish for offshore monitoring and inspection
Saipem and Oil Spill Response Limited extended their existing services agreement to include deployment of FlatFish, Saipem's underwater drone. The expanded scope covered environmental monitoring and asset-integrity inspection tasks including survey, leakage detection, plume monitoring, dispersant concentration monitoring, environmental assessment, and patrolling. The agreement positioned FlatFish as a fielded subsea robotics asset inside a live offshore response and monitoring partnership.
Source - 2019-04-04 - Deployment - JettyRobot completes Saipem South Stream pipeline project
Saipem contracted JettyRobot to clean four pipelines at the South Stream WP5.1 landfall facility. The JettyRobot team developed project-specific technology for the pre-commissioning work and completed the cleaning and inspection assignment. The deployment kept personnel out of the pipeline while applying robotic cleaning and inspection methods before the infrastructure entered service.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Unplugged
Hydrone R Deployment Partner - Unplugged charging and communications interfaces support Saipem's Hydrone-R resident subsea operations at Equinor's Njord field.
- Oil Spill Response Limited
Offshore Response And Monitoring Partner - Saipem and Oil Spill Response Limited extended services covering FlatFish offshore monitoring, inspection and environmental tasks.
Context
Comparable profiles
- EyeROV
stack adjacency - Subsea Survey Payloads · Underwater Intervention
- Cellula Robotics
stack adjacency - Autonomous Undersea Vehicle Oem · Autonomous Undersea Navigation
- VideoRay
stack adjacency - Subsea Survey Payloads · Underwater Intervention
- MSubs
stack adjacency - Autonomous Undersea Navigation
- Greensea IQ
stack adjacency - Marine Robotics Operations · Autonomous Undersea Navigation
- Ray Systems
stack adjacency - Autonomous Undersea Vehicle Oem
- Kongsberg Discovery AS
stack adjacency - Subsea Survey Payloads
- Shom
stack adjacency - Marine Robotics Operations
- Subsea Fenix
stack adjacency - Marine Robotics Operations
- G.O.S.L Nigeria Limited
stack adjacency - Marine Robotics Operations
- Nordic USV AS
stack adjacency - Marine Robotics Operations
- SubC Imaging
stack adjacency - Subsea Survey Payloads
Shared workflows
- Boxfish Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection · Subsea Inspection Robotics
- DroneQ Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- SEAHI Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection Robotics
- Fleet Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- JM Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- QYSEA
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- Blue Atlas Robotics
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- Eelume
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- Notilo Plus
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- Argeo
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- Subsea Tech
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection
- OceanScan
workflow adjacency - Subsea Inspection Robotics
Context tags
- Offshore energy assets - Customer Environment - Saipem underwater drones target subsea resources and offshore energy assets.
- Subsea inspection - Workflow - FlatFish is designed to autonomously inspect subsea resources without a support vessel.
- Subsea inspection workflow - Workflow - Saipem Hydrone and FlatFish underwater robotics program targets autonomous subsea inspection.
- Commercial deployment - Commercial Stage - Saipem has public Hydrone/FlatFish tests and operational underwater robotics programs.
- Autonomous undersea vehicle OEM - Stack Layer - Saipem develops underwater drones, but company-level identity is broader offshore engineering and energy services.
- Marine robotics operations - Stack Layer - Saipem operates underwater robotic solutions inside offshore/subsea operations.
- Subsea survey payloads - Capability - FlatFish uses AI, advanced navigation and payload modularity for subsea inspections.
- Autonomous underwater vehicle builder - Peer Group - FlatFish works as ROV/AUV and is designed for autonomous subsea inspection.
- Autonomous undersea navigation - Capability - FlatFish is described as a hybrid and fully autonomous underwater inspection drone.
- Underwater intervention - Capability - Saipem broader Hydrone family includes resident underwater robotics for offshore tasks; keep intervention as supporting context.
Commercial
- Saipem wins Petrobras contract to develop and test FlatFish-based autonomous underwater inspection solution offshore Brazil
2023-01-19 · Order / contract
Source