Engineers plan to deploy a robotic swarm for conducting undersea surveys
Posted 09.09.2009 at 1:30 pm
5 Comments
A robotic swarm of "ring-wing" submarines could someday scout underwater locations for oil.
Engineers from GO Science, an engineering firm specializing in aerodynamic robots, have struck a $10 million deal with an unnamed oil company. GO's ring-wing foil concept has applications for aerial vehicles as well, but the startup company has currently focused on undersea flyers.
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Technology, Jeremy Hsu, bots, drones, oil, ring wing, robots, submarines, subs, uavs, underwater, uuvsEach Ring Hydro Vessel Agent Under-liquid (RHyVAU) can get an orientation relative to the swarm by using a compass, inertial sensors and acoustic signals, and going by a surface coordinator unit that uses GPS. The underwater bots can then form up in a grid on the seabed and deploy sensors for oil-drilling surveys.
The engineers, formerly employees of British defense company BAE Systems, also have military applications in mind for their robots. Certainly the U.S. Navy has already expressed strong interest in building its own undersea drone fleet, as PopSci has previously noted.
GO Science even has a "uRaptor" aerial design that would use twin duct fans for near-vertical takeoff. That concept may face competition from similar unmanned systems, but there's plenty of room in the sky for military drones of all types.
[via The Register]
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How are they communicating with this device? I see an antenna, but it is under water.
This is a fantastic design. It shields the motors, provides inherent stability, lift and maneuverability in the water. Well done.
They communicate using broadband acoustic antennas.
Absolutely cool design. So simple yet functional. All the electronics can be easily designed into the shell and remain protected from the rough and tumble of the sea.
i rarely support these "bots" wich are usually ill desighned, but I cant pick on it this time incredible, idea, desighn construction they passed all those stages wonderfully
I can see that it is a great "toy". But these are sensor vehicles - i.e. it is not the vehicle itself that is the story; it is the information from the senors that it carries which provide the selling point.
How can such a small device which relies upon its dynamic characteristics carry any sensor to detect oil / or anything else of underwater significance?
Lets see the sensor first, then worry about how we get it to where we need it!