AquaDrone Autonomous Ocean Ranch: Underwater Robot Swarms End Open-Sea Aquaculture's Dependence on Human Divers

AquaDrone Autonomous Ocean Ranch: Underwater Robot Swarms End Open-Sea Aquaculture's Dependence on Human Divers

Norwegian marine-technology company OceanFarm, working with global salmon-farming leader SalMar, has deployed AquaDrone at the Surnadalsfjord on Norway's western coast. AquaDrone is a coordinated system of multiple underwater robots and an unmanned surface vessel designed to free open-sea aquaculture from its dependence on human divers.

Norwegian salmon farming has long faced a peculiar problem: cages sit 20 to 30 meters underwater and accumulate biofouling over time, requiring periodic cleaning by divers. Divers have limited bottom time and need lengthy decompression after each dive. A medium-sized fish farm pays roughly $800,000 a year for diving services.

AquaDrone's core consists of three underwater robots. Cleansweep handles net cleaning, equipped with rotating soft brushes and high-pressure water jets that remove more than 90 percent of biofouling. InspectBot is the health-monitoring robot, fitted with multispectral cameras and sonar scanners; it patrols the cages daily. FeedTender is a precision-feeding robot that adjusts feed volume in real time based on fish satiety and sea conditions.

All three robots are coordinated through Commander, an unmanned surface vessel. Commander acts as both a communication relay and a mobile charging platform, autonomously sailing to each robot for contactless charging. The system is designed for 24/7 unmanned operation.

SalMar deployed a full AquaDrone system at the pilot site: one Commander, four Cleansweeps, six InspectBots, and three FeedTenders. After 12 months of operation, staffing at the farm fell from the conventional 12 to 3, with the remaining crew focused on remote monitoring and exception handling.

On economics, AquaDrone's investment is about $12 million; amortized over a 5-year service life, that is roughly $3.4 million saved per year. SalMar chief operating officer Trond Davidsen said the company plans to roll AquaDrone out to 14 of its offshore farms by 2027, with cumulative annual savings projected at $48 million.

AquaDrone also delivers unexpected environmental benefits. FeedTender's precision feeding has cut wasted feed from a typical 15 percent down to 4.7 percent, reducing pollution from uneaten feed settling on the seabed. InspectBot can also spot escaping salmon early; during the pilot it flagged three potential escape events, preventing environmental and genetic contamination.

AquaDrone still needs improvement in heavy weather. Norwegian waters routinely see waves above 5 meters in winter, conditions that can interrupt the robots' signals or damage their structures. OceanFarm is developing a next-generation robot with wave-adaptive capabilities, expected in the second half of 2026.

On the international regulatory side, Norway's Ministry of Fisheries has flagged AquaDrone as a benchmark case for offshore aquaculture automation. The European Commission is weighing whether to fold its experience into a revised Aquaculture Equipment Safety Directive, which would require all offshore farms to install automated monitoring on critical operations.