The Hawaiian Autonomous Undersea Robot

Roland Piquepaille writes "After several years of research, engineers from the University of Hawaii are now testing the first autonomous robotic vehicle for deep-ocean work in the U.S. This robot is called SAUVIM, short for Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Missions. It's roughly the size of an SUV and it is designed to operate to a depth of about 4 miles. With its computers, its sensors, and a 5-foot, 150-pound autonomous manipulator, or robotic arm, it will be able to move towards a specific target, such as a wrecked pipe laying on the ocean floor -- and maybe fix it. Right now, this robot has an autonomy of about eight hours, but this range should soon be extended when the researchers move from batteries to fuel cells to power the undersea vehicle. This overview contains other details, references and several pictures of this autonomous submarine engine."

Comments

Diver Robot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will it protect me from the terrible secret of the deep?

'SAUVIM'?

[TripMaster Monkey]

What a terrible acronym! Let's see if we can come up with some better ones.

Here's my contribution:

Semi
Autonomous
Underwater
Robot
Over
Network

Pease post your ideas below:

Re:'SAUVIM'?

[01000011011101000111]

Semi
Autonomous
Underwater
Exploration
Robot
Kinetically
Removing
Aberations
Under
Time-constraints
Any good?

Re:'SAUVIM'?

[datafr0g]

Well if they turn out to be unreliable we could call them:

Semi
Autonomous
Vehicle
Exploring
Our
Underwater
Rocks,
Silt and
Ocean
Until it
Leaks
Sinking

w00t

[Anonymous Coward]

imagine a beowulf cluster of these things!

Google's next move..

[jmcmunn]

ocean.google.com

I see it now, google maps for the ocean floor. I bet they buy this robot and start compiling their data asap. C'mon, first the moon and now this!!??

Completely Autonomous?

[MindNumbingOblivion]

So, is this thing completely autonomous, as in, it sits out there and just looks for stuff to fix? No input from humans whatsoever?

Think about all the wonderful things it could fix!

Like a whale it hears singing.

Detecting signal on anomalous frequency...
Current Position: over SONET line in mid Pacific
MOVE TO REPAIR MOST URGENT

::Dreams of all the wonderful friends the repairbot would meet on his travels. Unfortunately he would be so lonely as all the sealife runs away.::

Why won't they let me fix them?

Big Geek!

[zippthorne]

I saw a documentary about that once, the ironically named, "little geek" prevented an interspecies war precepitated by a larger autnomous vehicle with strapped to a MIRV which would've been remarkeably one-sided against us. Funny thing is, the oil company turned out to be the good guys.
The most important lesson learned was: If your wife who you're falling back in love with drowns herself to go into hypothermic shock for the purpose of surviving a trip from the damaged minisub to the main complex without a suit the defibrillator, adrenaline and oxygen will do nothing. The thing to do is slap her around a bit and yell at her. Do this right away, the other "first aid" simply wastes time during which brain damage can occur.