'The world’s largest untapped frontier': NASA-led startup is replacing $100k-a-day ships with ‘AI-infused’ autonomous robots

• Offshore inspections remain expensive due to heavy reliance on vessels
• Autonomous robots aim to remove humans entirely from offshore operations
• Persistent deployment replaces short missions with continuous data collection

Offshore operations have long depended on vessels and crews that cost up to $100,000 per day, which is not only expensive but also dangerous and difficult to scale.

Bubble Robotics, a startup founded by former NASA and ETH Zürich robotics engineers, now claims to have a better solution.

The company emerged from stealth in April 2026 with $5 million in pre-seed funding and a plan to replace those costly ships with autonomous robots.

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