Accurate subsea cable location, without the guesswork.
AI correction for magnetometer survey data, improving the precision of subsea power cable position measurement. Fewer repeat surveys, less unnecessary protection, and better maintenance decisions.
Critical infrastructure, and surprisingly hard to find
Subsea power cables carry electricity between wind farms and the grid across hundreds of kilometres of seabed. Locating them accurately is harder than it sounds. Magnetometer-based survey systems carry systematic scale-factor errors that distort the measurement, and deviations of fifty to a hundred and fifty centimetres during a campaign are common.
Repeat surveys
Around thirty percent of cable survey measurements have to be repeated, at full vessel cost each time.
Unnecessary protection
Where the position is uncertain, extra protection gets installed to be safe, at significant and avoidable cost.
Risk during crossings
New pipeline or cable crossings are planned against a position that may be off by more than a metre.
Claims exposure
Insurance claims related to subsea cable failures account for the large majority of offshore wind claims by value.
Physics-informed correction, built into the survey workflow
Seekable conducts subsea cable surveys using autonomous underwater vehicles equipped with magnetometers. Tarucca analyses the electromagnetic field data and builds models that identify and correct the scale-factor errors causing the systematic deviation.
Physics-informed machine learning
Models built on the physics of electromagnetic fields around a cable, accounting for cable type, burial depth and orientation. Anchoring the model in the physics is what lets it generalise beyond the conditions it was trained on.
Scale-factor correction
Automated identification and correction of the systematic errors in magnetometer measurement, separating the cable's magnetic signature from background interference.
Integrated into the survey platform
Corrected position data delivered in real time during a survey campaign, with uncertainty quantified alongside it rather than hidden.
ZeeCAIbel at a glance
- Lead partner
- Seekable B.V., Amsterdam. Survey hardware and operations.
- Tarucca's role
- The AI and the correction algorithm.
- Funding
- MIT R&D Samenwerkingsproject 2025.
- Primary application
- Offshore wind export and inter-array cables.
- Other applications
- Electricity grid cables, telecom cables, and cable monitoring more generally.
- Target outcomes
- A substantial reduction in position measurement deviation, fewer repeat surveys, correspondingly lower survey vessel emissions, less unnecessary cable protection, and better-informed burial depth management.
Is this relevant to you?
Cable owners and operators
Wind farm developers, transmission system operators and grid operators who need confidence in where their buried infrastructure actually is.
Survey companies
Who want better measurement accuracy, fewer repeat campaigns and a stronger competitive position.
Port authorities and marine contractors
Facing cable-crossing questions during new infrastructure installation.
Maintenance companies
Who need precise cable position data to plan work at all.
We are also interested in similar localisation problems in other domains, including onshore grid cables, telecom cables and pipeline monitoring.
Do you know where your cables actually are?
If you own subsea cable assets or run the surveys, the useful first conversation is about the accuracy you get today and what a repeat campaign costs you. We are also glad to hear from anyone facing a similar localisation problem in another domain.
