Slinky swimming snake robot has the undersea moves - CNET

Autonomous underwater vehicles are opening up the aquatic domains in more detail than ever before. However, current drone technology is still limited in a few ways, one of which is size, shape and flexibility. With a swimming snake robot, Norwegian engineering company Kongsberg Maritime believes, we could access, survey and monitor hard-to-reach areas.

Together with Norwegian University of Science and Technology spin-off company Eelume and petroleum company Statoil, Kongsberg is developing a sea snake-inspired robot that will reside permanently on the seabed, monitoring underwater equipment and performing maintenance tasks such as adjusting valves -- tasks that are relatively simple to perform, but difficult for humans to access. This should greatly reduce the cost of subsea operations, the team believes.