To support scientific research and commercial activities at sea, technological developments have tried to reduce the reliance on ships, which have high and rapidly increasing operating costs, delivering robotic platforms ranging from remotely operated vehicles to autonomous underwater vehicles. However, because these platforms depend on support vessels (an economic drawback) and/or have relatively limited endurance (leading to short missions), the need for a cost-effective platform enabling affordable long-term and large-scale exploration and environmental monitoring of vast ocean regions still remains.
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