Undersea robot developed in Hawaii
When we heard that researchers in Hawaii were working on a new robot, we figured we were in for something like ASIMO in a grass skirt. Fortunately, we had it wrong. The Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Missions (SAUVIM) is a remote-controlled sub that can go as far down as four miles, and can use a robotic arm to perform tasks like repairing undersea cables. SAUVIM can stay underwater for as long as eight hours; future models with more powerful batteries are expected to be able to stay submerged for several days, doing things like disabling mines, retrieving lost equipment and whining about the fact that seaQuest was cancelled after just three seasons. The bot was developed at the University of Hawaii, and received about $12 million in funding from the U.S. Navy.
[Via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
