Rapid advancements in marine robotics have gained popularity due to a growing interest in oceanic exploration and commercial underwater applications. The marine environment puts forth a challenging framework for automation - oceans cover more than 70% of the earth’s surface and support an estimated 90% of the life forms on our planet. While technology applications are a safer and effective method of surveillance and monitoring, care should be taken to apply methods that don’t disturb the delicate ecological balance that exists in deep waters.

There’s substantial interest globally in developing new tools that support the exploration, observation, sampling, and persistent monitoring of the marine environment. The use of advanced technological tools such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and fully autonomous robots are growing in popularity.

However, this sector is relatively unexplored in India. And this piqued the interest of Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Vineet Upadhyay and Rakesh Sirikonda – all graduates of IIT-Madras. Along with two faculty members from the University’s Mechanical Engineering department, the trio built several underwater robots out of the tinkering labs of IIT-Madras. These prototypes received positive feedback from relevant industries, prompting the team to incorporate the company and get incubated at IIM Incubation Cell at the IIT Madras Research Park.

“At the time, we discovered that the field of Marine Robotics and advanced underwater structural health monitoring was completely an alien concept in India. On the contrary, the country is filled with aging underwater assets that need urgent attention and assessment. We decided to leverage this gap through our innovative technology solutions and keep the public infrastructure safe and running. This is how Planys came to be and 6 years down the line we have carved a niche for ourselves across the nation and the globe,” says Jhunjhunwala.

The company has built 8 ROVs till date, with two more in the pipeline to be announced soon. Planys being an IP-protected business, the founders refrain from releasing specific technical details, but a typical ROV will consist of a frame, a watertight hull that houses the electronics, a camera enclosure, thrusters for propulsion, a tether that has 2-way communication and external power source. The ROV further has lights, LASERs, and several other sensors like IMU and pressure sensor.

Ageing infrastructure is a pressing global issue. Underwater structures need to be inspected regularly to sidestep unforeseen disasters like bridge collapses, dam bursts, etc. Presently, human divers are used for routine inspections. However, these come with a set of drawbacks like human limitations, hazardous conditions, inaccurate post-inspection data analysis and non-digital reporting. Planys deploys a research-driven approach and leverages disruptive innovations in marine robotics by skillfully merging them with unique underwater Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods and AI-enabled post-inspection analytical digital reporting dashboard.

The Indian oil & gas sector is moving forward towards using technology that is safe, reduces downtimes and increases production efficiency. Planys’ technology is specifically used for underwater inspection of Single Buoy Moorings (SBM), pipeline, jetties, storage tanks (firewater, potable, etc) inside refiners, intake pipelines and structures in refineries and reservoir inspection. Planys’ solution helps them shift from a time-based inspection protocol to a risk-based protocol and helps them forecast maintenance measures.

Marine robotics is making its way into every sector including the ports and shipping. Utilizing drone technology can result in economic and social development for Indian ports. Replacing human intervention like diver inspection with ROV inspection can instantly make operations safe, avoid taking berths/jetties offline, efficient, and in many cases more streamlined. Another important task that ROVs can perform is ship hull inspection, timely inspection and cleaning of the ship body to reduce fuel costs. “A healthy balance between marine robotics and marine assets can act as a catalyst for improving the Indian ports sector and making greater profits,” says Jhunjhunwala.

Planys Technologies is considered a pioneer in the marine robotic solutions field in the Indian subcontinent. Their unmanned inspection solutions offer capabilities like HD videography, murky water inspection and robotic cleaning. Through Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Ultrasonic, Magnetic and SONAR sensors, they offer clients unique insights into the definitive health of underwater structures. Planys’ safe, digital, and cost-effective solutions have helped asset managers increase their efficiency and help them in keeping public assets safer.

Their AI-enabled enterprise level digital reporting platform allows easy representation and analytics of asset maintenance and inspection data, designed specifically for usage with inspection services offered by Planys. Features include geo-tagging of inspection data, rich data presentation, easy navigation, data enhancement, prediction, and analysis of trends in data collected over a long duration.

The Digital Reporting Dashboard is a futuristic information management system that tracks, analyses, and displays crucial data points to assess the health of a given structure. It can be tailored to suit the requirements of the client. Currently, the reporting of underwater data in the inspection industry is non-digital, limited to PDFs & a dump of raw un-processed footages. This leads to the end user going through hours & hours of data making it impossible to take accurate decisions. This is where Planys’ Digital Reporting Platform carves a niche. It allows quick analysis, accurate defect quantification, and cross-comparison of inspection data across years and much more.

Planys’ USP lies in its well-thought-out and holistic services. “What increases the client’s ROI value is our one-of-a-kind digital reporting dashboard. It allows the user to assess hours’ worth of data rapidly and also compare across years, enabling swift decisions. Our safe, digital, and cost-effective solutions have helped asset managers to shift from a time-centric protocol to a risk-centric protocol,” explains Jhunjhunwala.

The startup works with several industry sectors like ports and terminals, oil & gas, process industries (desalination, power, chemical plants) and dam & bridges - India's critical infrastructure. Marquee Indian customers include the water resources department of states like Karnataka and Maharashtra, Indian Railways, PSUs such as NTPC, HPCL, BPCL, highways departments (PWD), EPC contractors (L&T) and port authorities like the Chennai Port. International customers include municipalities in The Netherlands, oil & gas companies like Vopak and Exxon and petrochemical companies in Saudi Arabia.

Future Plans:

Planys currently operates in India, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. Currently, they have a wholly-owned subsidiary in Rotterdam named Planys BV and multiple mobile offices across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, and Singapore. “We are now aggressively working on expanding footprint internationally to regions like Europe, Middle East, and SE Asia,” explained Jhunjhunwala.

On the product development front, the startup is working on several ground-breaking NDT technologies and engineering innovative products that have the power to further change the status quo of underwater inspection. In addition, Planys also developed a platform for enabling Internet of Underwater things (IoUT) as part of the Qualcomm Design India Challenge (QDIC) 2020. Planys is one of the startups selected as part of the Idex program by Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) as part of Startup India Initiative by the Ministry of Defense to develop indigenous underwater robotic systems for the navy.