Half a Dozen New Undersea Robots!

The IEEE’s Nicolette Emmino offered an interesting report on undersea robotics, May 24, in the Industries section of Electronics 360, titled Six Underwater Drones Making a Technology “Splash”. She discusses six robots in detail, outlined here.  The modest sized Trident, from OpenROV, can reach depths of over 300 feet, and conveys live video to the surface. Controlled via smartphone, it retails for $1,500. iBubble was designed to capture your personal dives on video via an optical dome. It can follow a diver with an onboard camera and capture stills and video in different modes. It follows the operator’s bracelet to depths up to 200 feet.  Ocean One is a humanoid from Stanford University with stereoscopic eyes, two human like arms and a tail with multiple thrusters (shown).  

The sophisticated machine employs haptic feedback so an operator on the surface can feel the heft of what is held, and its missions range from exploring wrecks and reef research to sensor placement. CRACUNS flies and dives. Developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, it can linger under the waves and then go airborne. SeaDrone is a solution for boat, dock, nets and pipeline inspection. It will run you from $2,300 to $3,900. 

Saab’s Sea Wasp, developed to counter submerged IEDs, and more, is operated by a 2-person team on the surface, and uses a fiber optic and power tether. Image credit: Frederic Osada and Teddy Sequin/DRASSM