It is where we all came from and it is vital to our future, but the earth’s oceans, seas and waterways remain a mystery to us – a final frontier. The Sunrise project is at the forefront of a revolution in communications, creating an underwater ‘internet of things’, that will mobilise robots to work in groups, interacting together and passing back information to us on life underwater.
The internet is omnipresent and has become a part of how we live, but now this connectivity is being extended from where we all take it for granted to where it has never been before – underwater.
Thanks to the SUNRISE project, supported by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme , underwater robots will be able to work autonomously, having received instructions. For the first time they will be able to communicate to each other and send data back to computers through the Internet, regardless of swiftly changing circumstances and challenges to data transmission.
‘The gaps in our knowledge of the underwater world are extensive. We know so little despite the fact that marine ecosystems are central to the health of our planet and vital to our economies,’ project leader Dr Chiara Petrioli says. Identifying threats to oil and gas pipelines, monitoring the environment, protecting archeological sites and finding out more about the geology of our planet – the ways teams of aquatic robots could help us learn more is endless, ‘This list is as extensive as your imagination,’ says Dr Petrioli.
Designing robots which can communicate in rapidly changing environments
Those changing environments are one of the key challenges the project faces. The robots communicate to each other using acoustic signaling, as do marine mammals. But whereas a dolphin will adapt the way it signals according to what is around it, robots need to be programmed to do so, presenting researchers with the task of developing machines capable of responding to a rapidly shifting set of variables. ‘Salinity, temperature, interference in the form of waves or passing shipping, all these will change the range of effective communication,’ explains Dr. Petrioli. This unpredictable environment is one of the key ways the internet of things underwater differs from our land-based use of WiFi and the internet.
The need to respond reliably to the shifting environment means multiple robots are needed so if one can’t communicate temporarily, another will take over the signaling. Schools of robots will carry a greater number of sensors and cover a larger area, cooperating and communicating together. Those operating them will send messages through modems transmitting acoustic waves. The waves are modulated to send information – but bandwidth is limited meaning transmission rates are slow. Additionally, sound waves only travel 1 500 metres a second, five orders of magnitude slower than radio communication in the air. Only a relatively limited range of tone will travel well – high tones don’t go so far.
The Latest on: Underwater robots
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Underwater robots” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Underwater robots
- TU Munich: Robots and drones to monitor and clean the environmenton April 27, 2024 at 11:17 am
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have set themselves the goal of cleaning the environment with robots and drones. This is done remotely.
- Team from Bannari Amman institute bags second prize in underwater robotics challengeon April 27, 2024 at 6:38 am
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology students win second place in Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge 2024.
- Cedarville senior, team builds underwater roboton April 26, 2024 at 7:12 am
This was a very lofty capstone idea, one that would be difficult to accomplish because other college students from previous years had attempted to make an underwater robot with ...
- RICE develops new underwater robot with a buoyancy control system using fuel cellson April 26, 2024 at 4:31 am
Traditional AUVs rely on thrusters or pumps to adjust depth, which consumes considerable energy and generates noise.
- Underwater robot pioneers new energy-efficient buoyancy controlon April 25, 2024 at 11:16 am
A remotely operated underwater robot built by a team of Rice University engineering students pioneers a new way to control buoyancy via water-splitting fuel cells. The device, designed and constructed ...
- Underwater robot pioneers new energy-efficient buoyancy controlon April 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
HOUSTON – (April 25, 2024) – A remotely operated underwater robot built by a team of Rice University engineering students pioneers a new way to control buoyancy via water-splitting fuel cells.
- These supersized clownfish robots could be coming to waterways in the Middle Easton April 22, 2024 at 4:28 am
The world’s water resources are under mounting pressure. A startup called Aquaai wants to use fishlike underwater drones to help the protect them.
- Robot penguins: This underwater drone can cruise at 11.5 mphon April 19, 2024 at 7:54 am
The advanced hydrodynamic qualities of the AUV are the result of years of research on penguin locomotion by the team. The Quadroin’s low drag form allows it to reach speeds of up to 10 knots, which ...
- Video: Bio-inspired aquatic robot shoots through the water like a penguinon April 18, 2024 at 11:21 am
Penguins are fast, fantastic swimmers, so why not make an underwater robot inspired by them? That's just what German underwater tech company EvoLogics has done, with its new-and-improved Quadroin AUV ...
- Stealth robot ‘XL’ submarines dubbed ‘Ghost Sharks’ to be deployed by Australia to ‘defend seas from China’on April 18, 2024 at 2:16 am
AUSTRALIA is building a fleet of stealthy robot submarines dubbed “Ghost Sharks” to patrol its waters and defend itself from the threat of China. The extra-large autonomous underwater ...
via Bing News