Humanoid Research Robot Explores Shipwreck in Depths of the Ocean
With the help of a humanoid robotic diver, researchers from Stanford University were able to explore a shipwreck 20 miles off the coast of France in more than 320 feet of water.
OceanOne, the robot that has a human-like body with hands and fingers to grasp archeological finds, made its maiden voyage to La Lune, a ship sunk in 1664 that had yet to be explored.
Researchers controlled OceanOne's movements from the deck of a boat with a joystick (check out the video above to see OceanOne in action), seeing what the robot could see and even feeling the weight of what it is holding.
"The intent here is to have a diver diving virtually, creating a robot that can be the physical representation of the human," says Oussama Khatib, a professor of computer science at Stanford. "The amazing thing about it is that you can feel what the robot is doing while sitting on the boat. ... It's almost like you are there."
Check out more images of the OceanOne project courtesy of Stanford or read more about OceanOne's exploration here:
Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSMBefore descending to La Lune, OceanOne was tested rigorously in the waters along the southern coast of France.
Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSMKhatib designed OceanOne with joint operations with human divers in mind. The ability to easily hand objects from robot to human is a defining feature of OceanOne.
Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSMOceanOne's fine movements were controlled from 100 meters above the seafloor, via haptic feedback joysticks.
Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSMFor the past few years, OceanOne has been Stanford Professor Oussama Khatib's passion project.
Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSMPrior to OceanOne's maden voyage, students perform last-minute checks of its mechanical systems.
