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Tiny Autonomous Submersible

Posted by michael on from the capsela dept.

dAzED1 writes "The BBC is reporting that Australian researchers have built a 40cm, self-controlling submarine that can dive to 5,000 meters. It's small enough that there is concern it could simply be eaten, or worse, used by the military. My question is, at 1 m/s, how does it get to 5km before the 1-day battery dies?"

16 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. One day? by adam+mcmaster · · Score: 4, Informative

    How does it do it in a day? Easy

  2. My question is, at 1 m/s, how does it get to 5km by Tomah4wk · · Score: 3, Informative

    beacuase thats about an hour and a half?

  3. I predict that... by psyconaut · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...ThinkGeek will be selling this unit within 3 weeks complete with an 8ft "cubicle acquarium" to drive it around in! ;-)

    -psy

  4. at 700$US a pop by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm getting one for sure!

    Then I'll be heading to Lake Tahoe to discover whether or not the legends are true...

  5. The real question is... by KDan · · Score: 4, Funny

    How stupid do you feel after getting basic 10-year-old maths wrong in your slashdot submission :-P

    Daniel

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    1. Re:The real question is... by alienw · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a British thing, you moron.

    2. Re:The real question is... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Funny

      No. Americans call maths math, while those of us in the English-speaking world call it mathematics or maths.

  6. What's next? by Engineer-Poet · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Keeping in mind that the little ship is good for "up to" a day (at what speed?) and that it would take 3 hours to get to depth and back at its top speed, how long will it take the makers to give it droppable ballast weights? You'd need two; one to ballast the positively-buoyant ship to neutral, and a second to give it extra weight to sink to depth without using its motors (thus saving the battery). Bonus points for using the weight to power a glide to points of interest instead of descending straight down.

    If hungry sea creatures are a problem, use some of that battery power to shock them, or shotgun-shell primers to scare them off.

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  7. Math lesson needed by photon317 · · Score: 3, Informative


    1 m/s * 86400 seconds in a day = 86.4km. I don't think the battery is the problem, it's the pressures past 5k.

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  8. New $700 toy.. by adeyadey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is more on the Serafina home page.

    Getting to 5000m should not be a problem of time, at 1 m/s, even though I wander whether that speed is possible vertically? Probably a bigger problem is communicating over 5km - maybe you need "relays" at intermediate depths. It seems that groups of them can act as a sort of network. I didnt see a lot of details on such things as coms distance, etc, tho I didnt dig very deep.

    As a toy for $700, I would even consider buying one.

    Hmmm, I wonder if you could mount a laser.. What do you mean, why?

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  9. battery life by Sogol · · Score: 4, Insightful
    How does it get to 5km before the 1-day battery dies?

    How much battery power do you think it takes to sink into the ocean?

  10. more info by Time_Ngler · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the main site...

  11. OR BETTER... by Picass0 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    "It's small enough that there is concern it could simply be eaten, or worse, used by the military."

    Why "or worse"? Giving our military better technology is often times the best way to avoid becoming entangled in lengthy conflicts and reliance on poor intelligence.



  12. I have an unorthodox solution... by kulakovich · · Score: 2, Interesting


    ... a "fantastic voyage" if you will! Mwa-hey.

    Admit it. You were thinking it.

    on a more serious note - you could design the craft to be neutrally bouyant at 4.9km depths. It will sink until it gets to that point, if need be, and a trigger could turn it on. Then you could go 4.9km linear horizontal, power down and pop a gas bladder to surface.

    kulakovich

  13. Imagine... by dnahelix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I imagine that one day there will be thousands of these robots constantly monitoring the ocean's vitals...
    I imagine them being rechargable on their own, too. What if they were covered with solar panels and when the battery went dead it would float to the top and recharge on sunlight...

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  14. Errr .... by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Giving our military better technology is often times the best way to avoid becoming entangled in lengthy conflicts and reliance on poor intelligence.


    Ummmm .... so that freakin' huge defence budget you guys have has prevented any of this from happening how ???

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