Kawasaki Heavy Industries will put an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that automatically inspects underwater oil and natural gas pipelines into practical use in 2020. The major Japanese engineering company plans to offer inspection services in addition to selling AUVs to major resource companies in the U.S. and Europe in order to develop new earnings sources. It will begin manufacturing AUVs at its Kobe factory in Kobe City as early as 2019 by applying the technologies it has developed through building submarines for the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and creating industrial robots. (Abridged)