Underwater drones

Chasing Innovation is aiming to make underwater drones more affordable, with the Dory.

Chinese startup Youcan Robot is back with the upgraded BW Space Pro underwater drone.

​As is the case with their aerial counterparts, underwater drones may be fun at first, but after a while you'd likely want to actually DO something with them. Well, Chinese manufacturer Geneinno recently took a step in that direction, by unveiling a powered manipulator arm for its Titan drone.

​Although there are presently numerous consumer underwater drones on the market, one that really caught our eye was Chasing Innovations' Gladius Advanced Pro. Now, the company has announced the smaller, lighter and cheaper Gladius Mini, which actually has some extra features.

​It was just last year that Youcan Robot successfully crowdfunded its remote-control BlueWater 1 (BW1) underwater drone. Now, the Chinese startup is back on Kickstarter, with its diver-following BW Space.

Test-driving the Gladius underwater camera drone was awesome, and it made us wonder: what's the state of the art in these devices? That would appear to be the US$30,000 Boxfish ROV, a 55-lb pro video monster with eight vectored thrusters, 20,000 lumens of lighting, and a max dive depth of 3,280 ft.

Underwater drones are starting to become more popular, and the Gladius is one of the better-specified ones you'll find. Capable of diving for over four hours, to depths of 330 ft, with a 4K camera and 2,400-lumen spotlights, it makes for some fascinating underwater exploration.

​Well, it's official – the crowdfunded underwater drones are now coming thick and fast. It was just last week that we heard about the MITO, and now Geneinno's Titan has hit Kickstarter. Among other things, it's reportedly able to dive deeper than almost any other model.

Although there are currently not many consumer underwater drones that are actually being shipped to customers, there are quite a few that are in pre-production. One of the latest, the Navatics MITO, is claimed to shoot steadier video than any other.

​If a just-launched Kickstarter campaign is successful, amateur or even not-so-amateur oceanographers will soon have another underwater drone to choose from. Known as the Nemo, this one promises some high-end standard features, along with a couple of interesting extras.

​If you've ever wanted to explore the underwater world using your own ROV (remotely-operated vehicle), there are now a number of consumer models in the works. The Sibiu Nano is one of the most recent to hit the scene, and it's being made with the do-it-yourselfer in mind.

​There was a time when consumer underwater drones were rarely heard of, but there are now a fair number that are in various stages of production. One of the latest to ping our sonar is the 4K-shooting FiFish P3, from Chinese/Taiwanese company Qysea.