A mermaid robot called OceanOne made its maiden voyage recently, recovering treasure from a sunken ship with the dexterity of a human diver.
Stanford University computer science professor Oussama Khatib led the team that created the robo-mermaid, which allows scientists to explore dangerous areas remotely,
Live Science reported.
Equipped with artificial intelligence, sensory feedback and flexibility, the 5-foot robot can interpret and respond to its environment autonomously as well as allow the person controlling it to feel what it is feeling.
“You can feel exactly what the robot is doing,” Khatib
told Stanford News. “It’s almost like you are there; with the sense of touch you create a new dimension of perception.”
OceanOne's first voyage was a visit to the wrecked La Lune, the flagship of King Louis XIV that sank in 1664, 20 miles off the southern coast of France.
Using a set of joysticks, Khatib guided OceanOne around the sunken ship, hovering over a vase, feeling its contours and weight, grabbing the object and placing it inside a recovery basket, according to Stanford News.
“OceanOne will be your avatar,” Khatib said. “The intent here is to have a human diving virtually, to put the human out of harm’s way. Having a machine that has human characteristics that can project the human diver’s embodiment at depth is going to be amazing.”
Discovery News described the robo-mermaid as an "underwater super-explorer, originally designed to study coral reefs in areas too dangerous for human divers."
Its human-like head includes stereoscopic vision, and its haptic interface make it suitable for other such tasks as underwater mining, oil rig maintenance, and disaster recovery.
Twitter users were very impressed by the robot, and voiced their praise without reservation.
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