Underwater Robots

In spite of its importance, the ocean is generally overlooked since we focus more of our attention on land and atmospheric issues. We have not yet been able to explore the full depths of the ocean and its resources. The deep oceans range between 19,000 to 36,000 feet. At a mere 33-foot depth, the pressure will be twice the normal atmosphere pressure of 29.4 psi. This obstacle, compounded with other complex issues due to the unstructured and hazardous environment, makes it difficult to travel in the ocean even though today's technologies allow humans to land on the moon.
Only recently, we discovered by using manned submersibles, that a large amount of carbon dioxide comes from the sea-floor and extraordinary groups of organisms live in hydro-thermal vent areas. On March 24, 1995 Kaiko (a remotely operated vehicle) navigated the deepest region of the ocean, the Mariana Trough. This vehicle successfully dove to a depth of 33,000 feetand instantly showed scenes from the trench through a video camera. New tools like this enable us to gain knowledge of mysterious places.
However, extensive use of manned submersibles and remotely operated vehicles is limited to a few applications because of very high operational costs, operator fatigue and safety issues. In spite of these hindrances, the demand for advanced underwater robot technologies is growing and will eventually arrive at fully autonomous, specialized, reliable underwater robotic vehicles.