Today’s world is marked by rapid technological advancement and evolving global threats — making the resilience and adaptability of existing infrastructure and supply chains critical.
The way in which critical infrastructure and supply chains are interconnected means they share mutual vulnerabilities and risks, which can arise from threats like cyberattacks, aging and brittle infrastructure, and natural disaster and climate change impacts. These risks and threats can significantly impact both global economies and security, affecting everyone. For this reason, DIANA set ‘Critical Infrastructure and Logistics’ as one of its challenge areas for 2025.
To find out more about the innovative solutions being developed in this challenge area, we spoke to two of the innovators in DIANA’s 2025 cohort who are working to improve infrastructure and logistics.
Sustainable underwater drones
By developing one of the world’s most sustainable marine propulsion system and enabling real-time monitoring of underwater infrastructure, Dolprop — part of DIANA’s 2025 cohort of companies — can help detect threats and protect assets and systems that support global supply chains.
By adopting a biomimetic approach — in other words, basing their technology on how nature works and taking inspiration for their technology on a dolphin fin instead of a propeller — the team have designed a silent underwater drone called Njord. This drone can be used for a huge variety of tasks, including research and surveillance.
“The biggest advantage with our technology is its higher rate of efficiency compared to a propeller, and it’s also completely silent under the water. Noise pollution in the ocean is a huge problem nowadays, as it’s really disturbing for the animals — but it’s not talked about enough,” explained Thomas Jemt, Dolprop’s Co-Founder and CEO.
This is particularly important in regions that are home to marine life, which can lead to marine corridors being shut, causing delays in shipping. In these cases, Dolprop’s biomimetic approach can help enable transportation flow without disturbing marine life.
Thanks to its ability to travel without being detected, the Njord can also be used for security and defence purposes, including for safeguarding subsea cables. However, it has many other applications — including commercial purposes, as well as research and conservation purposes, where it can be used for the retrieval of samples or to monitor marine life.
Thomas Jemt and the Njord at Dolprop’s R&D facilities.Before becoming one of the Co-Founders of Dolprop, Jemt was a pilot for ten years and then worked on developing robotic equipment within the aviation sector. Recalling how the idea for Dolprop came about, Jemt said: “I was at a dolphin show with my kids and saw a dolphin taking off at amazing speed, which made me wonder: how many horsepower does a dolphin produce? When I found out that the dolphin weighed 350 kg and was moving at over 30 knots, I was shocked.”
Taking inspiration from this, Dolprop designed the Njord to glide silently and undetected just two metres above the seabed, but at impressive speed. Its ballast tank control allows it to descend to different depths, while its built-in glider function enables it to move without using energy by adjusting the rudder. Additionally, the device is powered by solar energy and can surface to recharge.
“Our innovation spans the environmental, defence and civilian markets, and one of our ultimate aims is for all container ships and private boats to use our technology, instead of the classic propeller which has been used for hundreds of years.
“We recently demonstrated that we can transport a full-size container ship with a seven-metre-wide fin, and we can take that container ship to up to 24 knots on only 60% of the engine’s usual speed. These container ships, which have current gold-standard propellers, consume around 15,000 litres of fuel — so the fact that we can improve on that is really impressive.”
Since joining the DIANA programme, Dolprop have entered an investment agreement with Scandinavian Astor Group and Oscilion Systems. The team are now working to take their innovation to the next level of development.
“DIANA has made a big difference for us because it opened many doors — it allowed us to speak to people that are usually unavailable. We’re a small company in Sweden, but we’ve been able to engage with much larger end-users. In this way, DIANA has made a huge difference — and it still is, we’re getting calls on a daily basis.”
Robotic arms for nuclear and space operations
On a mission to design robots that can perform in the harshest environments, Fluid Wire Robotics (FWR) was founded in 2024 as a spin-off from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa — where the company’s CEO Marco Bolignari was based at the time.
Most robots are unable to operate in dangerous locations like nuclear reactors, the deep ocean or outer space — and the ones that do are typically overengineered, fragile, prohibitively expensive and customised for one scenario but ineffective in another. FWR saw a gap: instead of adapting fragile robots for dangerous places, why not reimagine the architecture entirely?
“Our vision is simple: a single robotic architecture that works anywhere,” said Ivan De Leonardis, Co-Founder and CMO. “Space, radiation, deep underwater — these are places too dangerous for humans, but too complex and costly for today’s robots. So we flipped the model: instead of stuffing motors and electronics into the arm, we moved everything into a shielded external unit we call the Actuation Box. The arm itself? It’s passive, lightweight, and intrinsically safe.”
The movement and force are transmitted to the arm using FWR’s proprietary fluidic transmission lines called “fluid wires”, a pressurised fluidic system to transmit movement and force through these wires. “These allow us to drive the joints with great precision, while keeping the arm completely free of onboard electronics,” explained De Leonardis. “It’s what enables our robots to handle extreme heat, radiation, vacuum, or submersion without redesigning the hardware for each case.”
In this way, FWR’s technology could be used in space missions, as well as underwater operations or even explosive environments — without putting people at risk.
The dual-use nature of FWR’s technology developed naturally: “Our technology is really versatile and can be applied to different markets to improve efficiency in operations, while also lowering costs. There’s huge potential in many different areas, but we are currently focusing on two major domains: nuclear and space. In nuclear power plants, our lightweight arms can navigate narrow spaces and handle high-radiation maintenance tasks more efficiently and safely than existing systems. In space operations, we are enabling advanced in-orbit servicing while lowering the mass of the system and enhancing the thermal management.”
“Since joining the DIANA programme, we have been exploring defence applications that we hadn’t even considered before starting the programme, and underwater operations have taken on unexpected strategic relevance” De Leonardis added. “It’s helped us see how our core architecture could solve problems across multiple domains, not just the ones we originally targeted.”
Render of Fluid Wire Robotics’ technology underwater.FWR joined the DIANA programme with an advanced prototype with a technology-readiness level (TRL) of four — meaning they had completed laboratory tests to demonstrate the advanced robotic capabilities that can be achieved using this kind of technology.
Once they received their initial investments, they started focusing on testing the technology in relevant environments, starting with radioactive and high temperature environments, where they’ve already achieved successful results.
“Our next steps include vacuum and underwater testing — key for space and subsea use,” said De Leonardis. “By the end of the programme, we’re aiming for TRL 5, which means proving everything works outside the lab. That’s the real threshold to unlock partnerships in space, nuclear, and defence markets.”
Strengthening the backbone of society
Through DIANA’s programme, innovators like Dolprop and Fluid Wire Robotics are developing technological solutions to improve critical infrastructure and logistics. From maintaining transport systems and safeguarding the energy grid and water supply, to monitoring climate change and potential natural disasters, this challenge area focuses on addressing risks related to economic security, public health and safety, and national defence.
As these companies pioneer new and exciting solutions, DIANA remains committed to supporting them beyond the programme — helping them make the systems that underpin our societies more agile, resilient and secure.
To find out more about all the companies in DIANA’s Critical Infrastructure and Logistics challenge, please visit: https://www.diana.nato.int/about-diana/2025-cohort-of-companies.html