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Community News for September, 2008
MIT Submarine Is Most Autonomous Robot Ocean Researcher Yet
September 29, 2008 — via Popular Mechanics
On the heels of successful bot building by land and air, the all-new Odyssey IV explores the ocean's depths on its own while fighting strong currents and gathering crucial data. With an endgame including six months worth of self-charging scout missions for underwater pipelines and environmental research, PM's intrepid reporter gets hands-on with its joystick to run down a seagull.
MIT Submarine Is Most Autonomous Robot Ocean Researcher Yet
September 29, 2008
MIT's latest autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is about to do something a little dumb. The Odyssey IV is bobbing through choppy waters here, and I'm on a boat nearby, holding the joystick that controls it. That seagull sitting quietly in the water nearby is clearly asking for trouble. I turn up the throttle, and Odyssey glides through the waves, nearly all of its mass below the surface. What's visible looks a lot like a yellow torpedo, or possibly a robotic shark. The AUV is moving at a fraction of its normal power—according to Franz Hover, a research scientist at MIT's Department of Oceanic Engineering and the principal investigator for Odyssey IV, "Today we're on a low-thrust diet," because of a mechanical problem with the thrusters the day before.
Underwater robot moves like an helicopter
September 28, 2008
MIT researchers have started to test a new underwater robot that can hover in place like a helicopter. The two-meter-long Odyssey IV will be able to move autonomously up to depths of 6,000 meters at a speed of 2.5 meters per second. But unlike other underwater robots, it will be able to stop at a specific location. It could be used by oil companies to inspect the footings of offshore oil platforms. It also could be used by marine archaeologists or oceanographers for specific missions — depending on its price.
MIT's new underwater robot can hover in place
September 25, 2008 — via MIT News Office
MIT researchers have designed a new robotic underwater vehicle that can hover in place like a helicopter -- an invaluable tool for deepwater oil explorers, marine archaeologists, oceanographers and others.
MIT's new underwater robot can hover in place
September 25, 2008
MIT researchers have designed a new robotic underwater vehicle that can hover in place like a helicopter -- an invaluable tool for deepwater oil explorers, marine archaeologists, oceanographers and others.
The new craft, called Odyssey IV, is the latest in a series of small, inexpensive artificially intelligent submarines developed over the last two decades by the MIT Sea Grant College Program's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Laboratory
IEEE/MTS Oceans 2008 Lockheed Martin Award
September 25, 2008
Mark R. Patterson, associate professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, received the Lockheed Martin Award for Ocean Science and Engineering at the Marine Technology Society's annual Awards Luncheon. It was held Sept. 16 ,during the OCEANS '08 MTS/IEEE Quebec City Conference in Canada. The society is an international organization of marine scientists, technicians, educators and policymakers.
‘Green' Energy Powers Undersea Glider
September 25, 2008
Thermal glider uses heat from the ocean to fly through the deep blue
Researchers have successfully flown the first thermal glider through the ocean—a robotic vehicle that can propel itself for several months across thousands of miles, using only heat energy from the ocean. In April 2008, a research team led by Dave Fratantoni of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Roy Watlington of the University of the Virgin Islands retrieved a prototype thermal glider that they had launched in December 2007 off the coast of St. Thomas in the Caribbean Sea. The vehicle crisscrossed a deep ocean basin between St. Thomas and St Croix more than 75 times, traveling uninterruptedly for more than 1,600 nautical miles (3,000 kilometers).
Tritech introduce the new, digital, side scan family at UUVS
September 23, 2008
A new digital side scan family is being launched at The Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Showcase (UUVS) in Southampton tomorrow. Subsea technology company, Tritech International are showcasing the new comprehensive range which has been tailored to suit requirements from shallow depth imaging to seeing in far deeper conditions.
Drop in the Ocean
September 16, 2008
Early last month, to the delight of its UK developers, a deep-diving robot submarine designed to survey the hardest-to-reach regions of the ocean began to report its findings.
Glider joins Rapid-Watch ocean monitoring programme
September 15, 2008
On the Tuesday 16 September 2008, a team from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, will launch an underwater glider in the Eastern Atlantic. The aim is to understand better the interaction between oceans and climate, improving the ability of scientists to detect signs of rapid climate change.
How iRobot Took the Plunge into Underwater Vehicles
September 11, 2008
On Monday, the Bedford, MA-based maker of land-based military and consumer robotics dived deeper into the field of UUVs—unmanned underwater vehicles—by announcing its $10 million acquisition of North Carolina company Nekton Research, which makes a prototype UUV called the Ranger. It was iRobot’s second foray into underwater vehicles this year, coming on the heels of January’s announcement that the firm had signed an exclusive licensing deal with the University of Washington to develop and produce its Seaglider craft.
USC Experts Monitor Coastal Waters
September 11, 2008
USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental studies have assembled a suite of sensors that include six radar installations to monitor water currents, two underwater “gliders” that carry thermometers and other gauges, and two buoys that will be anchored offshore and fitted with gear to analyze water quality.
SAIMOS, the Southern Australia Integrated Marine Observing System.
September 10, 2008
SAIMOS is one of five nodes operating as part of the nation-wide Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). This is a collaborative program designed to observe Australia’s oceans, both coastal and blue-water.
Robots explore the ocean's depths
September 9, 2008
Vehicles can ‘paint us an underwater picture like we haven’t seen before’A half-century after satellites began providing unprecedented views of the world’s oceans, a new generation of robots darting beneath the waves has begun filling in the vast gaps in oceanographic knowledge that extend all the way down to the seafloor and beyond. Among the newest class of elite robotic explorers is an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, which can swim like a fish or hover like a helicopter while precisely mapping seascapes. Another can glide for thousands of miles using only the ocean’s stored heat for power. And one is set to withstand crushing pressure while diving down nearly seven miles to the deepest ocean trench.
OceanServer Signs Master Marketing Agreement with SAIC
September 9, 2008
OceanServer has signed a master marketing agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)[NYSE: SAI] to deliver autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) solutions for a variety of defense-related, federal government and other markets.
Coming to your desktop: virtual submarine that will allow access to Europe's sunken wrecks
September 9, 2008
Coming to your desktop: virtual submarine that will allow access to Europe's sunken wrecks
· Project will provide record of archaelogical sites
· Two locations mapped so far with plans for a third
iRobot swims ahead without Brooks
September 8, 2008
iRobot plans to acquire an underwater robotics company for $10 million,
the company announced Monday. The announcement comes one week after iRobot co-founder RodneyBrooks said he will step down as iRobot's chief technology officerto pursue a new venture. While Brooks will remain on iRobot's board, his move has left some people questioning what's next for the growing robotics company.
Durham robot maker sold to iRobot Corp.
September 8, 2008
iRobot Corp. is buying Durham’s Nekton Research LLC in a deal that could be worth as much as $15 million
iRobot buys underwater minisub-droid firm
September 8, 2008
iRobot Corp, famed as the manufacturer of the "Roomba" autonomous floor-cleaner, has bought underwater robot maker Nekton Research
UK: Heriot-Watt University Triumphs at the Student Autonomous Underwater Competition – Europe (SAUC-E)
September 4, 2008
UK: Heriot-Watt University Triumphs at the Student Autonomous Underwater Competition – Europe (SAUC-E)
The spacecraft and the submarine
September 2, 2008
Deep sea explorers often compare what they do with space exploration, many times only superficially and rarely favorably to the space explorers, whom they believe get too much money. It is common for books on undersea exploration to include a throwaway comment about how we know far more about the surface of the Moon than the bottom of the ocean, or how more people have been into space, or on the Moon, than have reached the bottom of the sea.
A robotic tuna for the Navy
September 2, 2008
You might not know that the bluefin tuna is an ultra-efficient swimmer. But the U.S. Navy knows that this tuna can reach speeds of 50 mph. So it wants to build robotic bluefin tunas for submarine surveillance missions. The first prototypes, designed by Massachusetts engineers, should be available by the end of the year. Of course, there are many other autonomous underwater vehicles (UAVs) already on the market. But there is a twist: a vast majority of them uses propellers. In fact, they are gliders, not swimmers. And RoboTuna 2.0 will be able to travel three times longer than these gliders with the same batteries.
Defense Contractors Snap Up Submersible Robot Gliders
September 2, 2008
In June, iRobot, in Bedford, Mass., best known for its Roomba vacuum cleaner and bomb-disposal PackBot, became the exclusive licensee of Seaglider, developed at the University of Washington, in Seattle. In July, defense industry giant Teledyne Technologies acquired Webb Research, in East Falmouth, Mass., creator of the Slocum glider. General Dynamics had earlier subcontracted Bluefin Robotics, in Cambridge, Mass., a licensee of the Spray, a glider jointly developed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.