A new AI SeaBot prototype will soon patrol the waters around Cyprus, especially near Limassol, to detect oil pollution and collect water samples. This innovation addresses growing environmental concerns caused by rapid maritime development, which has led to oil leaks and illegal discharges that threaten marine ecosystems, industries, and tourism.
Developed at Frederick Universityโs RAS LAB as part of the IRSAI project, the SeaBot is an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) powered by advanced AI and remote sensing technologies. Successfully tested in March, the SeaBot is designed to identify pollution sources, predict spill trajectories, and support enforcement actions.
The initiative marks one of the first large-scale deployments of this kind in Cyprus. It will also be an important lesson for transferring promising projects from laboratory validation to real-world maritime operations.
The current Technological Readiness Level (TRL) of the system is 4-5, meaning it has been validated in a lab but still needs to be tested in real-world conditions. The IRSAI project aims to push this to TRL 7, bringing the technology closer to full-scale deployment in operational maritime environments.
This pioneering effort represents one of the first large-scale demonstrations of these technologies in Cyprus, with only a handful of similar applications reported worldwide.
