http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/23/hy...d-solve-our-ignorance-of-the-oceans/?ncid=rss
The earth consists of 70% ocean and 30% land. And yet, famously, we know more about the surface of the moon than what lies beneath the waves, because only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored. This, despite the fact that 95% of the world’s life, energy and resources lies in the sea.
Currently our way of exploring this is by loading a bunch of electronics into something resembling a torpedo (an AUV) which must then explore the vast ocean ranges in a pretty solitary manner. These AUVs are deployed to monitor oil spills and do environmental monitoring, but are pretty expensive, lumbering things which don’t have much intelligence.
What would be much smarter would be a swarm of small, autonomous underwater drones that could live almost constantly underwater, roaming the oceans and performing all these duties practically all the time. Like an Internet of Things for the oceans.
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What's down there? Maybe we will have a better idea in the not-too-distant future!
The earth consists of 70% ocean and 30% land. And yet, famously, we know more about the surface of the moon than what lies beneath the waves, because only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored. This, despite the fact that 95% of the world’s life, energy and resources lies in the sea.
Currently our way of exploring this is by loading a bunch of electronics into something resembling a torpedo (an AUV) which must then explore the vast ocean ranges in a pretty solitary manner. These AUVs are deployed to monitor oil spills and do environmental monitoring, but are pretty expensive, lumbering things which don’t have much intelligence.
What would be much smarter would be a swarm of small, autonomous underwater drones that could live almost constantly underwater, roaming the oceans and performing all these duties practically all the time. Like an Internet of Things for the oceans.
__________________________________________________
What's down there? Maybe we will have a better idea in the not-too-distant future!