Oil and gas producer Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Brazilian company TideWise developed the ARIEL Project (Autonomous Robot for Identification of Emulsified Liquids) and the USIS Project (Uncrewed Subsea Inspection System). Repsol Sinopec Brasil is a joint venture between the Spanish Repsol Group (60%) and the Chinese Sinopec Group (40%).

ARIEL is an unmanned system for the inspection and monitoring of the presence of oil in the sea. If it identifies an oil stain, the drone will collect a sufficient amount of water and oil for analysis in the laboratory.

The USIS project’s main objective is to integrate an ROV, a remotely operated underwater vehicle, into the USV Tupan. This technology will allow remote operators to monitor mooring lines, subsea oil and gas pipelines, FPSO hulls and submerged structures of offshore wind farms, in addition to cleaning fouling on submerged surfaces.