No. 605: A new unmanned underwater robot competent enough to avoid a collision (September 4, 2012)

Technology:

It takes three days for an existing unmanned underwater robot to survey an area of 5 km square because operating more than one unmanned robot simultaneously may cause a collision between robots. Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding will develop an unmanned underwater robot that can avoid a collision with another robot toward the end of this year. The new robot with highly advanced built-in sensors can cover an area of 5 km square alone in one day without the fear of collision.

Mitsui’s robot automatically submerges and surveys the geology of the sea bottom in accordance with the preinstalled program. The research vessel locates the surfacing point using GSP and recovers the robot. Mitsui’s robot can go under the sea as deep as 4,000 m. The new robot is designed to help government agencies and research institutes with their efforts to survey the seabed resources close to Japan. It will be priced at hundreds of million of yen. 

The existing model. Mitsui will develop a new model that can avoid a collision by itself. The new model will be able to survey the seabed resources of an area of 5 km square in one day by itself.