A Humanoid Robot Stands on the Deck of an Anchor Handler

Anyone who has worked on an anchor handler knows where the danger is. It is on the aft deck, close to a wire or chain under tension, with a hammer in your hand and a Kenter link in front of you. This week a robot stood on that deck.

What happened. The Norwegian owner Solstad said its anchor handler Normand Sigma recently supported a Petrobras initiative that is exploring humanoid robots, which means robots shaped like a person with two arms and two legs, for future anchor-handling work offshore. Solstad lists the jobs being looked at: handling tensioned cables, opening Kenter links and shackles (a Kenter link is the joining link that connects two lengths of anchor chain), and also inspection, monitoring and maintenance tasks. The stated aim is better safety and efficiency. Solstad's photo shows a small humanoid robot, about waist high, standing on deck next to a crew member.

The ship. Normand Sigma is an 87-metre anchor handling tug supply vessel built in 2014. It is one of two Solstad anchor handlers that started four-year contracts with Petrobras in early 2026, together worth about $210 million.

What we do not know. Almost everything else. The robot maker is not named. We are not told what the robot did on board, or whether it did anything more than stand on deck. The photo looks like it was taken alongside, not at sea. No next step and no date are given. The only source is Solstad's own short post, and we found no press report. So read this as a first look, not as a robot at work.

Why it still matters. Petrobras does not just talk about robots. In 2023 it spent US$4 million on six four-legged inspection robots for its production ships, after testing one on the FPSO P-74. Two weeks ago we asked whether a robot dog would ever board a ship. An oil company with that record has now put a humanoid on a working anchor handler and named the deck jobs it wants to study.

Our view from the deck. The jobs on that list are the hardest ones for a robot. A wet, moving steel deck. Heavy gear. Strong and exact hand work. A small robot like the one in the photo cannot open a Kenter link today. The honest first jobs are probably looking, measuring and carrying. That is still useful if it keeps one person out of the snap-back zone, the area a broken wire sweeps through.

What to ask. If a client brings a robot to your ship: who is responsible for it on deck? What may it do, and who stops it? Has it been tested on a moving, wet deck? And what happens to the crew's job description when it stays? [Solstad · Baird Maritime · ANYbotics · AiatSea, 1 November]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 15 November 2026.