New
Age Of Exploration: Robots Swarm
Into Land,
Sea, And Space
Has
the age of human explorers come to
an end? There are several projects
underway
that are sending robots where humans
dare
not tread. Scientists are ramping up
to
deploy hundreds of aquatic drones
into the
ocean depths, following the first
successful
transatlantic voyage of a robot last
year.
Swarms of miniaturized rovers the
size of a
penny will soon defuse mines, and
thousands
of terrain-ready robots will test
rock
composition on other planets.
Machines will
continue to explore where humans
can’t,
and swarm robotics is leading the
way. In
2009, Rutgers University launched an
aquatic
glider that became the first robot
to cross
an ocean. Nearly eight feet long,
the
device—named the Scarlet Knight,
after
Rutgers’ sports teams—spent months
collecting data on the Atlantic.
What makes
the voyage remarkable is that the
glider was
at times directed from remote
locations—once from as far away as
Antarctica—using satellite, GPS and
other
technologies. Rutgers researchers
breathed a
sigh of relief with Scarlet’s
success.
Their first glider, launched the
previous
year, was presumably smashed by a
shark
before reaching the other side. Be
sure to
check out the video after the break.