transphibian

Navy seeks 'kamikaze' robot to clear mines

Today, sussing out bombs on land and from the air is a routine chore for robots in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the U.S. Navy wants a smart class of robo-fish to do the same in some of the world's most dangerous waterways.

One contender for that task is the Transphibian, a 3-foot-long autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) created by Durham, N.C.-based Nekton Research. The Transphibian is designed to identify mines and map the seabed by swimming and crawling through places where troops or ships are likely to follow. Soon, the company hopes to field a type of &… Read more

Originally posted at Military Tech

August 1, 2007 5:00 AM PDT By Mark Rutherford

Topics:

If By Sea

Tags:

AUV,

mines,

U.S. Navy,

Transphibian,

MIT,

Nekton Research