ADNOC has partnered with the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) and ASPIRE to test fleets of autonomous drones for emergency response, marking a step toward fully integrating artificial intelligence into crisis management across the UAE’s critical energy infrastructure.
The pilot, announced during Abu Dhabi Autonomous Week 2025, will see coordinated drone swarms stream live video to ADNOC’s Crisis Management Center, providing real-time situational awareness during industrial emergencies. The system will enable drones stationed at ADNOC sites to automatically deploy during incidents, with long-range units and smaller support drones linked back to headquarters for nationwide coverage.
“Emergencies demand speed and clarity, and this collaboration is about delivering both,” said Andrew Strefford, Executive Director at ASPIRE. He described it as “an example of how applied research can turn deep tech into life-saving solutions that redefine resilience in critical industries.”
This comes as Abu Dhabi pushes ahead with its focus on autonomy and AI safety applications. The initiative also reflects a broader trend among national oil companies to deploy unmanned systems for asset monitoring, worker safety and environmental protection.
The project, led by TII’s Autonomous Robotics Research Center, integrates multiple drone types, from long-range aircraft to swarm-based units, into a unified framework that can be scaled across ADNOC’s operations. In large-scale emergencies, fleets of autonomous drones could be launched from a “mothership” to scan vast areas, locate stranded individuals and relay data and connectivity to field teams.
“What we are building with ADNOC is a coordinated, multi-layered system that integrates autonomous, long-range and swarm operations into one seamless framework,” said Professor Enrico Natalizio, Chief Researcher at TII’s Autonomous Robotics Research Center.
“By plugging directly into ADNOC’s Crisis Management Center, we are validating technologies that could be scaled across the wider energy and utilities sectors.”
The pilot will run under ADNOC’s Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) framework, with full operational adoption considered after successful testing. If implemented, it could set a precedent for how the Gulf’s critical infrastructure operators, from oil and gas to transport and utilities, leverage autonomy to strengthen safety and disaster resilience.
“Through this partnership with TII and ASPIRE, we aim to explore how coordinated drone fleets can provide real-time intelligence across our value chain and better protect our people and assets,” said Khaled Alblooshi, Vice President of Digital Projects and Innovations at ADNOC.
For Abu Dhabi, the project is in line with the emirate’s ambition to become a global hub for applied autonomy research, positioning its R&D ecosystem, led by the Advanced Technology Research Council, as a proving ground for real-world AI applications that can be exported across industries and borders.
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