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

Almost

[Anonymous Coward]

Choi said 99 percent of the vehicle's system is autonomous, with 1 percent semiautonomous for a communications link for safety. A signal could be sent to the vehicle to stop and return if necessary, he said.

http://starbulletin.com/2005/07/19/news/index11.ht ml

Re:Fuel Cells

[NanoGator]

"Over 8 hours of power for something the size of an SUV? And we don't have these for cars because?"

Please forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't an undersea vehicle require a good deal less energy than an SUV travelling at 60mph for 8 hours?

Other such projects

[STFS]

For those interested in the general subject of underwater autonomous vehicles: http://www.gavia.is/ Gavia is a "modular" underwater vehicle. It has modules that can be put together according to ones needs. The site has some interesting reading material (if you click on the "Products" link) about the software architecture (basically the software is set up as a "virtual crew" with a "captain agent" a "navigator agent" and so on.