Shipping is becoming another real-world environment where robotics has to operate outside controlled conditions.

Hull inspections that used to require divers are now being handled by autonomous and remotely operated systems using cameras, sonar, and ultrasonic sensing. These robots are working in low visibility, dealing with currents, corrosion, and limited connectivity.

There’s also work happening around combining multiple systems. Underwater vehicles, aerial drones, and surface robots coordinating on inspection tasks. It starts to look closer to multi-robot systems than single-purpose machines.