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Friday, October 10, 2008
MIT’s latest robot sub is geared for long-term submergence
By Brendan Lynch
The Odyssey IV, an underwater robot developed by MIT researchers, may lead to increased exploration of the ocean floor — at bargain prices.
The autonomous underwater vehicle, unveiled last week in Woods Hole, can hover in place to take photos or measurements. Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, director of the MIT Sea Grant AUV Laboratory, said he plans to add a manipulator arm to the robot to interact with the robot’s surroundings.
When the project began about 20 years ago, the MIT team wanted to do for the AUV market what the laptop did for the personal computer market, according to Chryssostomidis. The group wanted to build a smaller, cheaper, easier-to-operate robot that any researcher would be able to afford.
The main goal of the Odyssey IV is to eliminate the “babysitting” an AUV needs, Chryssostomidis said. For example, oil companies with offshore platforms could use such an AUV for long-term scouting missions for platform sites. To that end, the researchers want to be able to deploy the Odyssey for about six months and enable it to charge underwater.
“Let it do its thing without us being around,” he said.
There are no plans to spin out a company or license the technology, though earlier versions of the robot were commercialized when Bluefin Robotics LLC spun out of the AUV lab in 2000. Although strictly a long-term R&D project, the Odyssey IV would cost about $300,000, or $450,000 to $500,000 with sensors, if he were to commercialize it, Chryssostomidis said.
“Given the right opportunity, if you want to buy a few, I’ll give you a good price,” he said.
David Barrett, a robotics researcher at Needham’s Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, called the price a bargain. In lieu of a robot, companies have to use a surface craft — and pay for the crew, food and medical supplies that it entails.
“You’re spending $20,000 a day on diesel,” Barrett said.
As far as Barrett is concerned, Chryssostomidis is the father of the underwater robotics community in New England. Chryssostomidis founded MIT’s AUV Laboratory in 1990. At the time, Barrett ran MIT’s testing tank, where the Odyssey I was tested.
At Olin, Barrett is working with Boston Engineering Corp. to develop the tuna-imitating robot, Ghost Swimmer, the descendant of MIT’s RoboTuna, which Barrett also worked on. Barrett said the Ghost Swimmer was long-term R&D, like electric cars, while the Odyssey was more pragmatic, like a “nicely built Toyota pickup.”
Barrett compared underwater robotics to NASA’s Apollo moon rockets. He said advancing underwater robotics will allow more university researchers, rather than primarily oil companies, to study the ocean floor.
“We know less about it than the surface of the moon,” he said.
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