Infrastructure and Robotics

Application of AI and automation technology 

Hardware

Marine sensors, robotics and autonomous vehicles for ocean observation

The marine sensors market is a rapidly evolving industry driven by advancements in digital technologies, miniaturisation of electronic components, and increasing demand for enhanced navigation, surveillance and communication systems. These technologies have important dual-use characteristics and support a wide range of applications spanning maritime security and defence, offshore energy production, environmental monitoring, marine research and commercial shipping

The application of robotics in the maritime sector has grown significantly in the past few years. Initially, robotics helped to improve safety in dangerous tasks such as underwater inspection, survey or mine countermeasures. As technology evolved, novel applications emerged in shipping, logistics, security, search and rescue operations, meteorology and oceanographic monitoring. Advances in autonomy, artificial intelligence, energy storage and satellite communication have enabled robotic platforms to operate for longer periods and at greater distances from human operators. Maritime robotics systems are increasingly integrated into broader digital ecosystems, combining sensors, cloud-based data platforms and remote operation centres. These developments are contributing to the digitalisation of maritime activities and to improved efficiency and safety across several blue economy sectors.

The maritime autonomous vehicles sector tends to be categorised by the plane where the platform operates: i.e. on the sea surface, sub-surface or above the surface. However, multi-modal systems that deploy robots across multiple planes are becoming increasingly common. 

The main market segments in the EU for maritime autonomous vehicles are as follows:

Maritime Autonomous Surface Systems (MASS). To date, MASS manufacturers have focused on platforms of less than 24 metres, largely due to the issues of compliance with national or international regulations that apply to longer vessels. Such regulation is often cited as a significant barrier to commercialisation of MASS technology. However, regulatory progress is being made both at the international (International Maritime Organization - IMO) and national levels, with interim guidelines for trials of MASS and mechanisms to apply exemptions for certain MASS classes and use-cases. This progress, alongside the maturity of the technology, has enabled the development of significantly larger MASS that will initially be operated as manned vessels but that are designed to be also operated as un-crewed, unmanned, remotely operated or even fully autonomous vessels. In the price-sensitive maritime logistics sector, these developments are more likely to find initial application in coastal or short-sea shipping. For longer range unmanned operation, further developments are underway to simplify the maintenance and communication issues. 

Underwater Vehicles. Tethered remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have long been used in oil and gas and renewables for inspection and maintenance tasks on offshore assets. These are increasingly being developed as un-tethered vehicles with the view to developing machines capable of long-term residency in offshore sites. These machines can autonomously undertake routine tasks, reducing the workload and therefore increasing the operational window for the more complex tasks that require human intervention. Other underwater autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are being developed for long-endurance, deep water or under-ice data collection, and are especially valuable in advancing our understanding of global warming. The offshore oil and gas sector relies heavily on ROVs for various tasks, including pipeline inspection, wellhead maintenance, and subsea equipment installation and retrieval. Other applications include defence and security, scientific research, and commercial exploration, among others. For example, in December 2023, the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) awarded a contract to develop an unmanned mini-submarine for combat.

Aerial Drones. Maritime uses for aerial drones are largely similar to terrestrial applications, and include tasks such as aerial survey, surveillance and security. However, there are also maritime-specific uses, such as search and rescue, lifting people out of the water, delivering floatation devices, inspection of ships or offshore turbine blades, delivering spare parts and bunker sampling. 

Multi-model Autonomy. Platforms are increasingly being developed to work as swarms and across the sub-surface, surface and aerial environments. MASS that can launch UAVs and aerial drones act as mother ship and communications hubs to maximise effectiveness and efficiency of operation. Advancements in this area are being increasingly driven by requirements from the defence and offshore energy sectors. 

The rapid development of robotics technology and its growing application of autonomous vehicles in the maritime sector requires guidelines to regulate traffic monitoring, management, communication and control. For this purpose, in October 2020 the Commission released the EU Operational Guidelines on trials of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). Resulting from a joint effort between EU Member States maritime authorities, industry stakeholders, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the MASS expert group chaired by the European Commission, the Guidelines aim to protect safety and security at sea and of the marine and coastal environment.

EU-funded projects are building practical validation environments for maritime robotics. For example, the SEAMLESS project (2023-2026) is developing and testing scalable and interoperable autonomous waterborne logistics solutions to facilitate a modal shift from road transport to more sustainable maritime and inland waterborne solutions, thereby reducing emissions while improving system-wide efficiency. Another project, ATLANTIS  has developed a pilot infrastructure to demonstrate robotic technologies for inspection and maintenance of offshore wind farms, supporting safer and more efficient O&M. The MARBLE Centre of Excellence focuses on maritime robotics capabilities and ecosystem development to accelerate applied maritime robotics research and deployment.

Subsea infrastructure

Subsea cables

Submarine cable networks are essential infrastructure that form the backbone of digital communication and power transmission within the EU and globally. As of February 2026, there were more than 600 active and planned subsea cables across the world, and additional 81 cable systems planned. The total length of submarine cables is estimated in nearly 1.5 million kilometres, equivalent to approximately 37 times the equator. The global network of subsea cables is evolving constantly. Cables have a typical lifespan of 25 years. Obsolete, technologically outdated or economically inefficient cables are repurposed or decommissioned and replaced by newer, more advanced ones. There are broadly two categories of subsea cables: communications and power cables (Figures 1 and 2). The EU largely depends on submarine communication cables for digital connectivity and energy supply.

Subsea power cables: The increasing exploitation of offshore renewable energy sources requires subsea power cables to transmit wind, wave, and tidal energy to land. The diameter of submarine power cables can vary significantly, ranging from approximately 70mm to over 210mm. These cables are available in two main types: Alternating Current (AC) or High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC), catering to different power transmission requirements and applications. AC cables are often the most cost-effective option for route lengths of less than 80km. In contrast, direct current (DC) technology is better suited for longer distances, as it can transmit power over greater lengths without significant loss.

Subsea communications cables: Subsea communications cables carry approximately 99% of inter-continental internet traffic. State-of-the-art submarine communications cables use optical fibers to transmit data using laser technology. Fiber-optic cables are encased in multiple layers of protective material, typically including plastic and occasionally steel wire, to ensure their durability and performance. Receptors at landing stations connect the data as light signals with the onshore internet infrastructure. These landing stations are often strategically located at coastal areas, often within port facilities.

Following a series of “hybrid threat” incidents in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas between 2023 and 2025, the European Union has shifted from a policy of “monitoring” to “active coordinated actions to address threats”. The EU Maritime Security Strategy, recognizing that maritime infrastructure is particularly difficult to monitor, and more time consuming and expensive to repair than terrestrial infrastructure, comprises a number of voluntary actions to enhance the protection and resilience of such infrastructure. In 2025, the European Commission adopted the Cable Security Action Plan, and in February 2026, the Submarine Cable Security Toolbox. Based on a comprehensive risk assessment completed in October 2025, the EU now tracks seven primary risk scenarios, including coordinated physical sabotage, cyber-intrusions at landing stations, and supply chain dependencies on high-risk third-country vendors. The EU has designated 13 priority subsea routes as Cable Projects of European Interest” (CPEIs). These projects receive streamlined permitting and priority access to EU funding to ensure “technological sovereignty” and reduce reliance on non-EU infrastructure providers. A EUR 21 million initiative has begun establishing Regional Cable Hubs in every EU sea basin. These hubs could use cutting edge technologies, including AI-driven threat detection to monitor vessel behaviour near cables and detect acoustic anomalies in real-time.

In the past decade, internet content providers have become the dominant users of subsea telecommunication cables capacity. Having recognised that any disruption or constraint to data flow have major impacts on their business, major internet content providers – such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon – invested in new submarine cable systems and became owners of their data network infrastructure. Data from 2025-2026 confirm that hyperscalers (Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon) now control approximately 71% of all utilised international capacity. In the Transatlantic corridor, this figure rises to nearly 90%, prompting EU regulators to emphasise the need for European-owned alternatives to maintain economic autonomy.

Demand for increased speed and capacity continues to grow and several subsea cable projects serving Europe are coming to fruition. These include the Medusa cable, the longest (8 760 km) submarine fiber-optic cable project running along the Mediterranean linking Egypt to Portugal, with multiple spurs to European and North African countries. In January 2026, the Medusa system achieved its final splice for Phase 1, physically linking France, Morocco, and Tunisia. It remains on track to become the longest cable in the Mediterranean, providing open-access connectivity to North African and European markets. This project received a grant contribution from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Platform and debt finance from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The 6^th iteration of the SEA-ME-WE cable linking East Asia and Europe has also been completed in 2025 with greatly increased capacity and speeds.

The world’s largest submarine cable, 2Africa, runs for 45 000 km, circumnavigating Africa to connect 46 landing points across 33 countries. While the project focuses on delivering connectivity to Africa, it is also an important new route for European markets, landing in Greece, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. As of March 2024, consortium members reported separate landings in Ghana, Nigeria and Portugal for the cable, which is due to offer capacity of up to 180 terabits per second (Tbps).

Many European citizens remain constrained by the extent of their digital connectivity. There is limited fiber coverage (56% of all households, 41% of households in rural areas in 2022) and delays in the deployment of 5G standalone networks in the EU. By comparison, Japan and South Korea each reached 99.7%, due to clear strategies in favour of fiber.

The future competitiveness of all sectors of Europe’s economy depends on these advanced digital network infrastructures and services, as they form the basis for economic growth. Improving Europe's connectivity infrastructure is fundamental for achieving Europe's 2030 Digital Decade objectives to connect all citizens and business with 5G and gigabit connectivity (i.e. 1 gigabit/s).

In October 2024, the European Commission adopted the second Work Programme for the digital part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital, which defines the scope and objectives of EU-funded actions to improve Europe's digital connectivity infrastructures. CEF Digital aims to increase the capacity, security, and resilience of digital backbone networks, in particular submarine cables. These actions will receive around EUR 865 million of funding from 2024 to 2027. The new CEF Digital Work Programme will support actions in:

• The deployment of 5G infrastructures in Europe;
• The deployment and significant upgrade of backbone networks;
• The deployment of operational digital platforms for transport or energy infrastructures, by optimising the energy use of information and communication technology (ICT) and reducing its environmental impact.

In February 2026, the EU amended the CEF Digital work programme, allocating an additional EUR 347 million specifically for the resilience of submarine infrastructure. This includes a EUR 20 million pilot programme in the Baltic Sea to create “Emergency Repair Modules” – pre-positioned repair equipment at ports to slash cable fix times from weeks to days A separate EUR 20 million call will fund SMART cable systems, integrating sensors into telecommunications cables to provide real-time oceanographic and seismic monitoring.

Subsea Pipelines

According to EMODnet, the EU has at least 21 000 km of offshore pipelines. These include several types of fluid transported, such as air, chemical glycol, chemical methanol, hydrocarbon condensate, cooling water, gas, geothermal heating, hydraulic, mixed hydrocarbons, oil, sewage, and water. This figure most likely underestimates the total length of offshore pipelines in the EU, as not all Member States are equally covered by EMODnet. For example, according to Eurostat

there are 32 540 km of oil pipelines – both onshore and offshore. As for gas, ACER reports a transmission network of over 200 000 km; the number totals more than 2 million km when accounting for the overall distribution network. 

Increased EU autonomy in gas supply has become a greater priority since the Russian’s war of aggression against Ukraine. With the objective to enhance EU’s energy supply security, the supply of gas from Russia to Europe via subsea pipelines approximately halved in 2023

 from the previous year. To balance supply, new liquefied natural gas (LNG)

 infrastructure was commissioned, increasing the regasification capacity of Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. In February 2026, Regulation (EU) 2026/261 was adopted, mandating the phasing out of Russian natural gas imports, preparing to phase out Russian oil imports, and enhancing monitoring of European energy dependencies

Europe’s Green Energy transition will ultimately mean a shift away from traditional oil and gas pipelines. Many will be repurposed in the long-term. New pipelines will be required for the supply of decarbonised gas and the movement of CO₂ for storage. Some of these specialised pipelines could originate from the retrofitting of existing gas networks. Approximately 70% of the current offshore pipeline network has the potential to be repurposed for CO₂ transportation, as a significant portion of the longer pipelines are already strategically located to connect ports with CO₂ storage sites, making them suitable for this new application. Furthermore, the development of Europe’s hydrogen economy will inevitably lead to the need for new infrastructure designed for hydrogen, including subsea pipelines. The potential for reusing existing offshore pipelines for hydrogen transportation

 varies widely, ranging from 2% to 25% according to observers, depending on demand and supply-side factors.

Under the term “multi-molecule” some of Europe’s largest infrastructure operators – notably Snam (Italy), Fluxys (Belgium), and Gasunie (Netherlands) – refer to the technical transition of pipelines to transport not just natural gas, but also green hydrogen, biomethane, and captured CO₂.

Update: 21.05.2026