An industrial estate in the east of Berlin is not a place one would expect to see a penguin. Yet visitors to the headquarters of technology company EvoLogics are greeted by one on a shelf. Another is swimming in an outdoor pool. Unlike their Antarctic relatives, these creatures have propellers instead of feet and, instead of fish, cameras, sonar systems and acoustic modems in their bellies. “We don’t copy a penguin just because it’s cute,” Fabian Bannasch, ceo of EvoLogics, tells monocle. “We take the best ideas of biology and transfer them to technology.”

Since first presenting its penguin-shaped Quadroin in 2021, the company has scrambled to meet demand for these autonomous underwater vehicles (auvs). EvoLogics moved into new purpose-built, four-storey headquarters less than two years ago but it is already at capacity; a second building is under construction next door. Over four years, the workforce – mostly electronics developers, robotics engineers and AI programmers – has quadrupled to 125 people. When monocle visits, there is a nervous hubbub as staff race to complete an German-funded order of 50 Quadroins, set to start patrolling the coastal waters of Ukraine soon.

EvoLogics was founded in 2000 by Fabian’s father, Rudolf, a marine biologist who worked in the department of bionics at the Technical University of Berlin. The scientist had studied penguins in Antarctica, noting that the chubby waddlers were also high-performance divers. “Their shape has been optimised over millions of years of evolution in Antarctic waters,” says Fabian, who took over as ceo four years ago.

However, EvoLogics’ first invention was an imitation of another expert animal swimmer: the dolphin. Rudolf patented an acoustic technology that mimicked the frequencies of dolphin song to enable clearer and faster signalling underwater.

Modems built by EvoLogics are now installed around the world to monitor underwater infrastructure, including oil and gas fields, and offshore wind farms. But the firm always experimented with robotics on the side, developing the Sonobot, a type of waterborne drone, as well as a life-size (and lifelike) manta-ray auv. The idea for the penguin came about when an oceanographer came to EvoLogics with a problem. To study ocean eddies – quickly shifting vortices that are key to understanding the climate – he needed fast, nimble auvs that could gather data.

The EvoLogics engineers turned to Rudolf’s Antarctica field notes and built a sensor-packed robot inspired by the swimming mechanics of an Adelie penguin. The Quadroin could swim in groups of six and collect data on water temperature, salinity and oxygen levels. The team realised that the biomimetic design could outperform typical vehicles for a host of applications. “With a traditional auv, you put it in the water and it’s gone for four hours on a programmed mission,” says Bannasch. “Then you collect it with a crane, plug it into an ethernet cable, run the post-processing, and find out where the Russian [ship] was eight hours ago.” A Quadroin, meanwhile, can be tossed overboard and swim at speeds of 10 knots (18.5km/h) to depths of 150 metres, while communicating in real time with its operator.

EvoLogics serves three main sectors, all of which are booming. “Mankind is still starting to explore what it can do with our oceans,” says Bannasch. Interested parties include scientists working to map a changing climate; commercial entities, including fossil-fuel and renewable-energy companies (as well as the new and controversial deep-sea mining industry); and authorities ranging from police forces for missing persons to the naval forces of Nato countries. To meet a surge in demand from the defence sector, EvoLogics teamed up with Bremen-based contractor Euroatlas to launch the larger penguin-shaped Greyshark, specifically geared towards military use. The 2.5-tonne auv can be sent on month-long missions – to spy on an enemy harbour, for instance.

While penguin auvs are an easy sell, a question remains: what about the animals that served as their models? Studies have shown that dolphins are bothered by their increasingly noisy ocean habitats, while the Quadroin’s communication system makes it sound like a real penguin. Bannasch is reassuring. “If anything, our vehicles cause less disturbance underwater than other vessels,” he says. “But yes, dolphins frequently come around for a chat. Once they realise that our vehicles can’t respond in their language, they give up.” It’s a good thing that robo-penguins are getting a warm welcome, because it looks as though many more will soon be patrolling the cold seas. — L
evologics.com