FAQs Archive

Q: D.23 What recovery protocols are in place if the underwater robot loses communication with the operating center?

The mission is downloaded to the underwater robot at the start of the mission. We don’t need real-time communication. In an emergency, the robot will go to the surface and use WiFi or satellite communication to communicate with the operating center.

Q: D.22 What communication protocols enable data exchange between the underwater robot and its mothership/operating center?

An acoustic link (USBL) transmits basic telemetry and status information between the underwater robots and the surface ship. Due to the low bandwidth of the acoustic link, we are limited in terms of what data is transmitted while the robots are submerged. Once a robot has surfaced as part of its on-deck servicing, the onboard data is transferred off the robot and into the on-ship data center. Data is exchanged between the ship and the cloud-based servers via TCP/IP connection over satellite.

Q: D.21 What is the data storage capacity of the underwater robot?

Many terabytes of storage will be available onboard the underwater robots, providing more data storage capacity than is required. Additionally, redundancy will be in place to protect against corrupted drive failures.

Q: D.20 Are there any limitations to the large-scale deployment of underwater robots?

No, the limitation of our operations is the rate at which the underwater robots are lifted onto the vessels. By increasing the number of vessels concurrently operating, the number of underwater robots doesn’t have limitations.

Q: D.19 Are there any specialized tools or equipment for the maintenance of the underwater robot?

While no substantially specialized tools are required for maintaining the underwater robots, while onboard the vessel, it is impossible to travel to the hardware store to pick up what is needed, so a complete set of required tools and redundancies will be available on the vessel.

Q: D.29 How does the underwater robot vision system adapt to underwater environments such as turbid water, varying seabed types, etc?

The nodule location is a consistent environment with a flat seabed and clear water. The underwater robot does not need to adapt to different environments autonomously. The size and shape of the nodules can vary from one region with nodules to another, and the algorithms for these new environments will need to be adapted. Still, this adaptation takes place at the development level, not in the autonomous behavior of the underwater robot.

D.29 How does the underwater robot vision system adapt to underwater environments such as turbid water, varying seabed types, etc?

Holly Nielsen2025-03-10T14:21:13-07:00December 11th, 2024|

D.23 What recovery protocols are in place if the underwater robot loses communication with the operating center?

D.22 What communication protocols enable data exchange between the underwater robot and its mothership/operating center?

D.21 What is the data storage capacity of the underwater robot?

D.20 Are there any limitations to the large-scale deployment of underwater robots?

D.19 Are there any specialized tools or equipment for the maintenance of the underwater robot?

D.29 How does the underwater robot vision system adapt to underwater environments such as turbid water, varying seabed types, etc?

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