Creepy robot eels with glowing yellow eyes created to fix leaks on deep sea oil rigs

The Eelume robot, a self-propelled aquatic mechanical snake, will be able to slither and slink their way into areas that are difficult to access with existing technology

These metallic eels with their slinky bodies and glowing yellow eyes look pretty sinister.
But despite their appearance they have been created as a useful tool to detect and repair damage on underwater structures.
The Eelume robot, a self-propelled aquatic mechanical snake, will be able to slither and slink their way into areas that are difficult to access with existing technology.
Currently huge vessels are used for the most basic repairs, so the Eelume robot is set to save a lot of money. The robots were a collaboration between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Kongsberg Maritime, and Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil. Eelume robots will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and interventions. They will carry out jobs including visual inspection, cleaning, and adjusting valves and chokes.
Bjørn Jalving, Executive Vice President Subsea Division at Kongsberg Maritime said: “It is a new tool that will enable operators to realise large scale cost savings by introducing new ways of conducting routine tasks and helping prevent unscheduled shutdowns by reacting instantly when required.”
Statoil’s Chief technology officer Elisabeth Birkeland Kvalheim added: “Instead of using large and expensive vessels for small jobs, we now introduce a flexible robot acting as a self going janitor on the seabed.

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