It's a robot that could change the way scientists gather data from underwater sources. Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California have developed a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and like other AUVs this sophisticated robot can slip under the waves, sweep the ocean floor, collect data, and perform programmed tasks. But the "Gulper" goes one step further--it doesn't just follow its program, it can also make decisions on its own, and can
plan its own route, avoiding hazardous currents and obstacles [BBC].
Explaining how the robot functions, Kim Fulton-Bennett from MBARI said:
"We tell it, 'here's the range of tasks that we want you to perform', and it goes off and assesses what is happening in the ocean, making decisions about how much of the range it will cover to get back the data we want" [BBC].
The ocean-going bot has also been described as ...
