A new autonomous underwater vehicle created by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is able to hover over a specific position in the ocean even in the face of currents.
How'd they do it? In a word: thrusters.
The Odyssey IV, which was developed at the MIT Sea Grant Program's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Laboratory, uses a combination of fins and thrusters on both ends of the robot. It allows it to act more like a helicopter than a propelled glider. The thrusters can also propel the Odyssey IV as fast as two meters per second.
The small robust AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) can navigate to a given point and then maintain that position, self-correcting for things like obstacles, sea life, and ocean currents. The Odyssey IV can withstand the rough jostles and pulls of the aquatic environment up to 6,000 meters below the ocean's surface. It
It's not just something being tested in a lab pool. The Odyssey IV was used this summer by researchers investigating sea squirt activity in the George's Bank area of the Gulf of Maine.
(Credit: MIT AUV Lab)
"The sea is very unforgiving. If there's anything that can go wrong, the sea will find it," Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, director of the MIT Sea Grant Program, said in a statement last week.
But hovering for the purpose of observing a specific ocean target is only one part of what the robot can do. The Odyssey IV is capable of picking up and carrying cargo. Its current mechanical arm is also able to complete simple functions such as turning a valve.
While the scientists seem proud of their robot's ability to stay in one place, they clearly have no interest in treading water themselves.
Chryssostomidis and company are already working on how they can give the AUV a longer battery life, better communication capabilities from underwater, and a larger capacity for holding and transferring data.
The group also hopes to develop more flexible arms capable of sophisticated movements that could enable it to be used as a repairman for underwater machinery.
Seaglider
(Credit: University of Washington)iRobot has secured exclusive commercial rights to develop an unmanned sea-faring robot from a group at the University of Washington.
The Bedford, Mass.-based company made the announcement Tuesday at the annual symposium for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
Specifically, the agreement is to commercialize an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) called the Seaglider.
The Seaglider was developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory and the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in conjunction with the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, which funded the initial project.
iRobot believes the Seaglider has military application potential. The company's Government & Industrial Robots division, the same side of the company that developed its military PackBot, has been put in charge of developing the Seaglider, according to two iRobot sources.
A public statement from co-founder and Chairman Helen Greiner also indicated the company has military use in mind.
"We have a strong track record for transferring new technology from research initiatives into products that support military missions...licensing the Seaglider from the University of Washington will help our robots conquer new underwater frontiers," Greiner said.
As part of the deal, the University of Washington will retain the rights to continue to develop and build Seaglider robots for its own research use, according to iRobot.
iRobot is best known for its vacuum-cleaning Roomba and it's military Packbot, but the company does already sell one underwater robot in its commercial line. The Verro pool-cleaning robot crawls along the floor and walls of a swimming pool to clean it.
While not as glamorous to the general public as walking and talking robots or robots that drive, AUVs have been getting a lot of attention in recent years within the robotics community.
There's an AUV equivalent to the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, the annual "race" of robot cars. The Office of Naval Research and AUVSI sponsor the annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. The AUVs are judged on things like computer control, power management, and navigation. This year's competition will be held in July at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego. The competition even has its own Facebook group.
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