kongsbergmaritime
Latest
Watch a robotic snake swim eerily like the real thing
Don't be shocked if you see a mechanical snake swimming around undersea equipment in the near future... it (probably) isn't there to kill you. Eelume, Kongsberg Maritime and Statoil are building a robotic snake worker that will inspect (and occasionally fix) underwater gear. Robot snakes are nothing new, but this serpent is both production-ready and almost uncanny in how it moves. By itself, it slithers as if it's stalking prey. Throw in thrusters, however, and it's something else -- it can quickly twist around pipes as if they were only minor obstacles.
Kongsberg Maritime intros underwater HD camera
Unfortunately, Kongsberg Maritime's oe14-502A is a far cry from being a traditional handycam wrapped up in a waterproof casing. Rather, this device was designed to latch onto remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and capture footage from the deep in glorious high-definition. More specifically, the inspection camera can capture at SD, 720p or 1080i (switchable via IR remote) and can handle PAL or NTSC. Of course, the standard model can "only" wander down some 4,500 meters before calling it quits (or imploding, whichever comes first), but that should be quite enough to grab some interesting undersea footage for pitching to Discovery.
