Key points
- The Eureka Collection System uses underwater robots with camera-based artificial intelligence to selectively pick polymetallic nodules from the seabed while avoiding visible life and minimizing sediment disturbance, leaving a large percentage of nodules untouched.
- A full collection cycle, from seabed work to ascent, battery swap and return, repeats approximately every 4 hours; a smart hook connects the robot to the surface ship below the wave-affected zone and a crane lifts it aboard via a rail system.
- Ships shuttle between the mining area and the processing plant while a swarm of robots remains at sea collecting nodules, with a scalable fleet designed to meet production demand.
- Impossible Metals lists the system’s key benefits as lowest cost per ton, lowest environmental impact, and no single point of failure.
