Page 23: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2011)
Subsea Vehicles: AUV, ROV, UUV Annual
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www.seadiscovery.com and food. Oceans will also become central to mineral exploration and harvesting in the future. The products we are developing and producing at iRobot have the potential to help in all of these regards. Knowing this,
I’m sure this next phase of my working life will be just as exciting and rewarding as the previous 32 years.
Manley, Liquid Robotics I am very proud of having challenged the limits of unmanned marine vehicle tech- nology since the early 1990s. The first marine robot I built, an autonomous surface craft (ASC), could barely cross the Charles River in Boston. Today the Wave
Glider (still an ASC though that term has fallen out of use) can cross ocean basins while providing near real- time connectivity to shore. All by harnessing natural energy sources. Missions I could barely imagine nearly 20 years ago are now possible, even routine. Many “fail- ures” along the way have taught me to remember the ocean is the most extreme environment we routinely enter and that imagination is always a few steps ahead of engineering. In terms of pure personal enjoyment I have appreciated the chance to employ new technologies in the field, sometimes for very special purposes.
Heinz, iRobot
The future will be more about sensor integration and autonomy. It is also about the data, not just the platform that collects it.