Underwater Robots for Everyone

Dirak writes "A small 112-pound ocean glider named Spray is the first autonomous underwater vehicle to cross the Gulf Stream underwater. Launched September 11, 2004, it has been slowly making 12 miles per day measuring various properties of the ocean. Spray spent 15 minutes three times a day on the surface to relay its position and information about ocean conditions and then glided back down to 3,300-feet depth ." And reader RoboFreak writes "Two Computer Science students at Brigham Young University-Hawaii have developed a Low Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. The students also entered their robot, LUV, in the AUVSI and ONR's 7th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition at San Diego, CA and competed against top Ivy-League teams. Their robot received recognition in the form of an award at this competition. This robot was designed with a budget of only about $600 and seems to be the cheapest AUV around. One of the AUV designers' interview conducted by Amit Kr Chanda of The Times of India is available here."

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Re:Today in Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck your family, douchebag

Not so funny scenario

[Anonymous Coward]

These underwater robots would be ideal as weapons of war in the Persian gulf. You could pack some nuclear explosives in them and also put some wheels on them so that they can move on land, effectively being amphibious. A possible scenario is the following. Iran builds the nuclear weapons that it has, so often, threatened to do.

We then launch about 100 of these underwater robots off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The bots submerge and head for Iran. After about 1 week, they reach their destination and appear at the Iranian ports under cover of the night. The wheels activate, and the bots speed for the nuclear weapons facilities. 10 bots speed for the Tehran. Within 24 hours, the bots denote, turning Iran into a smoldering cesspool of radioactivity.

The global war on terror is won.