Stanford's Humanoid Robot Explores Shipwrecks, Sunken Planes

A robot created at Stanford University is diving down to shipwrecks and sunken planes in a way that humans can't. Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they're underwater explorers, too, Ashley Strickland reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: OceanOneK is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and its brain can register how carefully it must handle an object without breaking it -- like coral or sea-weathered artifacts.

OceanOneK resembles a human diver from the front, with arms and hands and eyes that have 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full color. The back of the robot has computers and eight multidirectional thrusters that help it carefully maneuver the sites of fragile sunken ships.

When an operator at the ocean's surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot's haptic (touch-based) feedback system causes the person to feel the water's resistance as well as the contours of artifacts.

OceanOneK's realistic sight and touch capabilities are enough to make people feel like they're diving down to the depths -- without the dangers or immense underwater pressure a human diver would experience.

The robot is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and its brain can register how carefully it must handle an object without breaking it -- like coral or sea-weathered artifacts. An operator can control the bot, but it's outfitted with sensors and uploaded with algorithms so it can function autonomously and avoid collisions.

While OceanOne was designed to reach maximum depths of 656 feet (200 meters), researchers had a new goal: 1 kilometer (0.62 miles), hence the new name for OceanOneK.

The team changed the robot's body by using special foam that includes glass microspheres to increase buoyancy and combat the pressures of 1,000 meters -- more than 100 times what humans experience at sea level.

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