When we visualise the modernisation of the maritime industry, our eyes naturally look up. We see towering, 5G-connected quay cranes, massive autonomous ships, and digital dashboards tracking global supply chains.
But the true foundation of global trade—the hulls of the ships, the pylons of the bridges, and the vast concrete walls of the ports—lies hidden beneath the surface.
For decades, inspecting this submerged infrastructure has relied on a method as archaic as it is dangerous: sending human divers into the dark. Today, a wave of homegrown Indian startups are changing that, replacing scuba gear with silicon, and deploying Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to digitise the deep.
The murky reality of Indian waters
To understand why this technology is critical, one must understand the environment. Inspecting a ship’s hull in the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean is vastly different from inspecting a bridge pylon in the Hooghly River or a berth at the Mumbai Port.
Indian port waters are notoriously challenging. Visibility is often zero due to heavy silt, currents are treacherous, and the water is heavily polluted. When a human diver is sent down to check for corrosion or structural cracks, they are often operating blind—relying purely on touch. The resulting reports are subjective, undocumented by clear visuals, and inherently risky.
Furthermore, pulling a massive cargo vessel out of the water into a dry dock just for a routine inspection costs millions of dollars in lost operational time and yard fees.
Enter the Micro-ROV
The solution is the underwater drone, technically known as a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). These are tethered, highly manoeuvrable robots equipped with high-definition cameras, powerful thrusters, and complex sensor payloads. They are piloted from the safety of a boat deck or a port wall.
While global giants have built massive, car-sized ROVs for deep-sea offshore oil rigs, Indian startups realised a different need: compact, rugged, and highly intelligent micro-ROVs tailored for shallow, murky inland and coastal waters.
Homegrown heroes: Planys and EyeROV
The vanguard of this movement is being led by brilliant engineering minds from India’s premier institutions.
Planys Technologies, incubated at IIT Madras, has become a formidable force in marine robotics. Planys didn't just build a camera that goes underwater—they built a mobile laboratory.
Their ROVs are equipped for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). This means the robot can crawl along the submerged hull of a ship, use ultrasonic thickness sensors to measure exactly how much the steel has corroded, and map it digitally.
They are effectively conducting an MRI of a ship’s hull while it is still in the water, a process known as UWILD (Underwater Inspection in Lieu of Dry-docking).
Down south in Kerala, EyeROV (specifically, the EyeROV TUNA) made headlines by developing India's first commercial underwater drone.
They have focused heavily on critical infrastructure—inspecting ageing dams, underwater pipelines, and port breakwaters. For port authorities, deploying an EyeROV means they can routinely check the integrity of their quay walls without waiting for a crisis or risking a diver's life.
The real magic: Seeing through the mud
Building a waterproof robot is a mechanical challenge, but making it useful in Indian waters is a software challenge. The true differentiator for these Indian startups is their AI and data processing capabilities.
How do you take a photograph in water that looks like chocolate milk? These startups are utilising advanced AI "de-hazing" algorithms.
As the ROV’s camera captures murky, unusable footage, the onboard software processes the video in real-time, stripping away the visual noise of the suspended silt, and delivering a clear, enhanced image to the operator on the surface.
When optical cameras fail entirely, these ROVs rely on acoustic cameras (imaging sonar). They use sound waves to paint a highly detailed, 3D picture of the underwater structures, allowing engineers to spot millimetre-level cracks in concrete pylons that hold up vital railway bridges.
The economic and safety dividend
The shift to ROVs is delivering a massive economic dividend to the Indian maritime and infrastructure sectors in the following ways:
1) Data-driven maintenance: Instead of subjective diver reports, port engineers now receive interactive 3D digital twins of their underwater assets, allowing them to predict failures and schedule preventative maintenance.
2. Cost reduction: Shipowners save exorbitant dry-docking fees because ROVs can inspect hulls and clean propellers while the ship is actively loading cargo at the berth.
3. Human safety: Most importantly, it removes humans from one of the most hazardous work environments on the planet.
As India builds new mega-ports like Vadhavan and expands its coastal economic zones, maintaining the integrity of marine infrastructure will be paramount. Thanks to the ingenuity of Indian startups, the maritime industry finally has the eyes and the intelligence to secure its deepest, darkest foundations.
The author is MD at the Flugelsoft Group of Companies.