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The World's Biggest Undersea Robot
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to redOrbit.com, companies installing subsea cables for telecommunications companies and pipelines for the oil industry now have a new tool, the UT-1 Ultra Trencher which is the world's biggest subsea robot. This beauty weighs 60 tons (out of the water) and has a length of 7.8 meters, a width of 7.8 meters and a height of 5.6 meters. In fact, it has the dimensions of a small house but is more expensive, carrying a price tag of about £10 million. It can move at a speed of 2 to 3 knots under the sea. And it can trench pipelines with a 1-meter diameter in deep waters of up to 1,500 meters."
Robots have at least some degree of autonomy. This is a bad-ass RC vehicle.
Our future overlords are increasingly unimpressed with us taking their name in vain.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
There are a huge number of undersea cables and pipes that currently reside on the surface of the ocean floor. How will they be affected by this device?
Furthermore, even if the "water knife" does not damage existing infrastructure, it will still be there when you go to run your new cable. Unless you manage to thread your cable under it somehow, there will be points where it will be exposed above the soil where it junctions with existing cable. Perhaps that's an acceptable issue today, but in a century when we have millions of miles of fiber-optics undersea, it may not.
A weak, unhelpful definition in any context- I operate my computer remotely via a keyboard. If that was the only criterion, the concept of 'robot' as opposed to any 'machine', would be diluted to the point of uselessness.
But you linked, and so are informative.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
Well, I deserved it. I've been stung by fanboy mods in the last few days, and was needlessly prissy. I laughed....
Maybe you could get some insightfuls, and we could carry on like this forever.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"