This year’s international underwater robotics competition taking place in Florida next month, is slated to see robotics pepped up to an all new level with an underwater robot – students from the University of Washington in Seattle are conjuring up. The robot, Trevor Uptain and his colleagues are developing, is far more advanced than a robot that a dives about 5 meters into the pool (something the competition desires).
The UW’s robot, with pneumatically powered gripper (to hold on the items underwater) and measuring about the size of a large microwave oven, is being engineered to descend in saltwater and withstand pressure of about 100 meters. The robot features three video cameras onboard and draws its power from a tether which uses off-the-shelf trolling motors that you’ll find in fishing boats.
The robot designed for the underwater robotics competition coordinated by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center, is also being planned, by the University Of Washington School Of Oceanography, to be used in mapping part of Puget Sound seafloor this summer.
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