HydRogRApHiC SURvEy 7
New type of hybrid robot vehicle
undertakes record-breaking dive
There is an underwater
vehicle flavour to
Jeremy Cresswell’s look
at what’s fresh on the
hydrographic front,
notably a new type of
hybrid robot vehicle
for deepsea survey and
a semi-submersible
vehicle designed to
replace small survey
monohulls.
Bei Jeremy Cresswells
Übersicht über das
Neueste an der
hydrographischen
Front springt ein
Unterwasserfahrzeug
ins Auge. Es
handelt sich um ein
neuartiges Hybrid-
Roboterfahrzeug für
Tiefseestudien und um
ein Halbtauchfahrzeug,
das als Ersatz für
Einrumpffahrzeuge
für kleinere
he robotic vehicle Nereus, developed
Untersuchungen at the US’s famous Wood’s Hole
vorgesehen ist.
T
Fig. 1. Nereus dove nearly twice as deep as
research submarines are capable of and had to
Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) withstand pressures of 1000 times that at the
is capable of operating both as a Earth's surface.
tethered remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and as
En su repaso a la
an autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). To reach the trench, Nereus dove nearly twice
actualidad del
panorama
It looks like a cross between an ROV and a as deep as research submarines are capable of
hidrográfico, Jeremy
catamaran and has just been on a voyage to the and had to withstand pressures 1000 times that
Cresswell's revela la
bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench at Earth’s surface-crushing forces similar to those
última sensación en
in the western Pacific Ocean. The dive to 10 902m on the surface of Venus.
vehículos submarinos. took place on 31st May and makes Nereus the Only two other vehicles have succeeded
Se trata de un nuevo
world’s deepest-diving vehicle and the first to in reaching the trench: the US Navy-built
tipo de vehículo robot
explore the Mariana Trench since 1998. bathyscaphe Trieste, which carried Jacques
híbrido para la
According to Wood’s Hole, the hybrid ROV/ Piccard and Don Walsh there in 1960, and the
exploración submarina
AUV format makes this machine ideal for Japanese-built robot Kaiko, which made three
de profundidad y
vehículo semi-
exploring and surveying the ocean’s last frontiers. unmanned expeditions to the trench between
sumergible, diseñado
“With a robot like Nereus we can now 1995 and 1998. Neither of these is presently
para sustituir a los
explore virtually anywhere in the ocean,” said available to the scientific community. Trieste was
pequeños monocascos
Andy Bowen, the project manager and principal retired in 1966, and Kaiko was lost at sea in 2003.
de prospección. developer of Nereus at WHOI, following the Building on previous experience developing
historic dive. tethered robots and AUVs at WHOI and
“The trenches are virtually unexplored, and elsewhere, the engineering team fused the two
I am absolutely certain Nereus will enable new approaches together to develop the hybrid.
discoveries. I believe it marks the start of a new Both ROVs and AUVs are now mature
era in ocean exploration.” technologies, with AUVs especially increasingly
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