Stanford's humanoid diving robot takes on undersea archaeology and coral reefs

The robot, called OceanOne, is powered by artificial intelligence and haptic feedback systems, allowing human pilots an unprecedented ability to explore the depths of the oceans in high fidelity.
Additional footage courtesy of: © DRASSM/Standford University/Gedeon programmes – 2016

From IEEE by Evan Ackerman

If you were in the audience for Oussama Khatib’s IROS keynote in Hamburg last year, you may remember him talking about this crazy thing:

We, of course, cornered Oussama immediately afterwards, because humanoid robotic submarine what?!
It turned out that OceanOne, as it was called, was involved in a top secret (or something) project in collaboration with the French, which has (now that it’s over and wasn’t a disaster) been un-topsecretified so we can finally, finally tell you about it.
Originally, OceanOne was not an archaeological robot—it was conceptualized by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia as a way of monitoring deep coral reefs in the Red Sea.
Christian Voolstra, assistant professor of marine science at KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center, explained where the idea came from in an interview last year:

Currently people use a so-called ROV (remote operated vehicle), which is a little submarine with two robotic arms and very limited dexterity. Using the ROV to examine delicate coral colonies proved to be troublesome. Prof. Khaled Salama (who is a professor in KAUST’s electrical engineering division) knew people at Stanford University who might be able to aid us in creating a new robotic interface system. We got in touch with the Stanford team and told them that we were not happy with the engineering solutions that are currently available. They said, “Ok, we know how to build robots … why not build an underwater robot?”

 

OceanOne is different from, and arguably better than, traditional underwater ROVs for a bunch of reasons.
It’s smaller, approximately the size of a human diver (about 5 feet in length), which helps keep it nimble.
Rather than waterproofing the electronics to keep air in, they’re immersed in oil instead, which doesn’t compress, giving the robot a maximum depth of 2000 meters (!).
OceanOne is designed to maneuver with precision in tight spaces using eight thrusters, and can autonomously keep itself stable in currents or surge.
With current underwater vehicles, “you spent the majority of time keeping the robot stable,” Dr. Voolstra told IEEE Spectrum, “rather than focusing on the research task.”
The robot’s most prominent feature is its pair of compliant, series-elastic arms, which apparently represent the very last project that Meka Robotics delivered before it was absorbed by Google.
The wrists have force sensors in them, and eventually, the plan is to cover each finger with tactile sensors as well.
With arms, hands, and a head stuffed with sensors, OceanOne is proportioned a lot like a human, which is one of the reasons it’s so revolutionary over existing ROVs.

 Christian Voolstra from KAUST with a more traditional ROV used for studying coral.

With a traditional ROV, you’ve got this enormous boxy submarine thing with maybe a couple grabby arms on it.

It’s functional for things like oil rigs, but around delicate coral or underwater archaeological sites, it’s not something that you can trust to not destructively smash into whatever you’re trying into examine.

And the manipulators aren’t intuitive to use, and don’t provide the level of control or feedback that enable careful manipulation of fragile objects.

 Photo: Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSM

OceanOne takes a new approach to underwater robotics: telepresence.
It’s designed kind of like a human, because that makes it super easy for humans to use.
The perspective that OceanOne’s sensors give a user is similar to the perspective that your face has in relation to your own arms.
Using haptic feedback, gripping objects without crushing them becomes simple and intuitive, even for people without a lot of experience.
This, in general, is one of the arguments for making robots more like humans, even if it’s a design compromise that adds complexity while de-optimimizing the robot for whatever task it’s intended for.
If you’re trying to (say) lift a piece of pottery out of a shipwreck, having two arms and a sense of touch is ideal, as long as a human is in the loop.
It may not the be best approach for a fully autonomous system, but for OceanOne (at least for the foreseeable future), it’s working out very well.

OceanOne’s first mission was to La Lune, the ex-flagship of King Louis XIV which sank 20 miles off the southern coast of France in 1664 in about 100 meters of water.
One hundred meters may not sound like a lot, but the SCUBA expert we consulted told us that you’re unlikely to find a human down there without an enormous amount of training and lots of special equipment to keep them from dying.
Happily, the robot seemed to have no trouble at all. From the press release:

With guidance from a team of skilled deep-sea archaeologists who had studied the site, [Oussama] Khatib spotted a grapefruit-size vase. He hovered precisely over the vase, reached out, felt its contours and weight, and stuck a finger inside to get a good grip. He swam over to a recovery basket, gently laid down the vase and shut the lid. Then he stood up and high-fived the dozen archaeologists and engineers who had been crowded around him.
“We connect the human to the robot in very intuitive and meaningful way. The human can provide intuition and expertise and cognitive abilities to the robot,” Khatib said. “The two bring together an amazing synergy. The human and robot can do things in areas too dangerous for a human, while the human is still there.”
Khatib was forced to showcase this attribute while recovering the vase. As OceanOne swam through the wreck, it wedged itself between two cannons. Firing the thrusters in reverse wouldn’t extricate it, so Khatib took control of the arms, motioned for the bot to perform a sort of pushup, and OceanOne was free.

OceanOne is still a prototype, and Dr. Voolstra from KAUST explained that “our plans are to conduct a number of experiments that highlight in particular the bimanual dexterity and sensitivity of the robot, showcasing its ability to conduct research.”
Once the robot has proved itself, Voolstra hopes to use it to study mesophotic coral reefs, which live too deep for humans to explore with SCUBA gear but get passed over in “deep ocean” research.
These reefs are very poorly understood, but as coral reef cover around the world shrinks, they may offer a unique coral refuge, says Voolstra:

What we plan in particular is in situ physiological studies of coral reefs at depth. For instance, in situ fluorometric measurements of different coral species over depth gradients will provide information on low-light adaptation and production potential of mesophotic coral specimens. The current practice to study living things in the deep is to collect them and bring them up to the surface, but this means that you take things out of their natural context. Up until now, we were not able to study things undisturbed in their natural habitat.

We’re incredibly excited to see what happens with OceanOne.

It represents a totally new approach towards underwater manipulation, and it’s very cool-looking, which doesn’t hurt either.

The press release suggests that we may be seeing a whole fleet (school? wolfpack?) of these robots all working together, either doing some serious research or pulling an underwater chariot just like in The Little Mermaid.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

Links :

• Red Sea Robotics
• PopularSciences : Humanoid robot can dive deep underwater, exploring reefs and shipwrecks where no human has gone before

Transat bakerly : the Transat is back

One man, one boat, the Ocean

The Transat is the Mother of all single-handed ocean races; the original contest that pitted one sailor and one boat against the sea.

This race launched professional offshore sailing as we now know it.
Upwind, into the ice & fog.

The Transat is still considered as one of the hardest of all ocean races.

Tabarly, Colas, Fauconnier, Terlain in the Transat 40 years ago.

Before arriving Plymouth, grand spectacle in Saint-Malo 

Links :

• YouTube archives : Ostar 1968 /  Yves Anrys 1976

Charting the Deep

In some areas, the maps used for navigation on the ocean, called nautical charts, still show information acquired in the 1800s, so there is a LOT of work to do!

From Slate by Robby Berman

In this video, we see how NOAA’s National Ocean Service is leveraging new technology to complete a task begun long ago: mapping the world’s oceans.
The vast majority of nautical charts were predominantly created manually by sailors and cartographers who didn’t have access to the kind of exacting measurements modern imaging tools can provide.
As such, there are gaps in the existing charts and areas lacking in details.
Some charts haven’t been updated since the 1880s.
Given that storms can shift sandbars and once-deep water may have grown shallower over time, this is not just an academic endeavor—inaccurate charts pose real dangers for sailors.
And, of course, there’s the inherent curiosity about what’s what down there.
NOAA’s bringing a range of technologies to the process.
They’re using planes and ships to map the deep ocean floor, and for any place that’s too snug or shallow for larger craft, an autonomous surface vehicle, or ASV, is sent in to handle the job.
These sled-sized little boats can be controlled remotely, or programmed to map out an area automatically over a period of hours or even days.

Nations negotiate fishing in Arctic high seas

www.arctic-fisheries-letter.com

From UPI by Hannah Hoag, Arctic Deeply

Researchers and policymakers from Arctic and fishing nations aim to make science-based decisions on fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean to prevent the depletion of newly navigable international waters.


Last week, delegates from six Arctic nations and other countries with major fishing fleets met in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans to prohibit commercial fishing in the central Arctic Ocean until scientists can find out more about the fish stocks and how they are changing.
"Fishing shouldn't occur up there until we have the science and the rules in place," said Scott Highleyman, director of the International Arctic Program at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

No commercial fishing occurs in the high seas of the Arctic Ocean yet. The 2.8m square kilometer area (1.08m sq. mile) region surrounds the North Pole.
It is referred to as the high seas because it lies beyond the 200 nautical mile limit of the Arctic nations.
Without regulations, it is permissible for fishing fleets to cast their nets within these waters.

Until recently, the area has been largely impenetrable to fishing fleets.
According to satellite records spanning 1979-2000, this high seas area remained ice covered throughout the year, even during the summer.
But in the past decade, summer sea ice has retreated dramatically.

During the summers of 2007 and 2012, as much as 40 percent of the Central Arctic Ocean – particularly the waters adjacent to Canada, Russia and the United States – was open water, Highleyman said.
Permanent ice has given way to navigable seas and seasonal ice, he added.

In August 2015, the five Arctic countries with coastlines bordering the Arctic Ocean – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States – signed a voluntary agreement to bar commercial fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean.

The declaration, signed in Oslo, is a voluntary agreement between the nations to keep commercial fishing vessels out of the region until scientists have improved their understanding of the region and can produce science-based assessments of the fish stocks and distribution.

Last week, Canada, China, Denmark, the European Union, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Russia and the United States met to discuss ways to bring other countries in on the agreement – or to create a new one.
China, Japan and South Korea are all observers to the Arctic Council, and the European Union's status within the organization is pending.

 The Central Arctic Ocean is a 2.8 million square kilometer area (1.08 million square miles) of international waters that lie beyond the 200 nautical mile boundary.

Map courtesy of the Pew Charitable Trusts

China, for example, captures more fish than any other country.

In 2012, its fishing vessels captured almost 14 million tonnes (15.4 million U.S. tons) of marine fish globally, a 13 percent increase in a decade, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Pollution and overfishing near China's coast – and high demand for fish – are driving its fishing vessels into more distant waters, according to a 2012 report by the European Parliament.

The report found China was aiming to increase its distant-water fishing fleet to 2,300 vessels by the end of 2015. In contrast, other nations are decreasing their fishing fleets to address overfishing.

Some researchers, including Daniel Pauly, from the University of British Columbia, warn that China's long-distance fishing fleet may be under-reporting its catch.

In a 2013 study, he and his colleagues estimate that China's long-distance catch may have been as much as 4.6 million tonnes per year from 2000-11, more than 12 times the reported catch of 368,000 tonnes per year.

Non-Arctic nations are interested in access to shipping routes, natural resources and fishing, making it important to include them in any discussions about future fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean.

There are concerns that in the absence of an international agreement that the region could become quickly overfished.
"As the sea ice starts to melt and the high seas of the Central Arctic Ocean become accessible for the first time in human history, how do we approach it? The idea of doing the science first and crafting the rules before we start is a really good idea," Highleyman said.

At present, there is "zero" evidence that commercially interesting fish stocks will extend in the Central Arctic Ocean, Highleyman said.

Part of the reason for that is that no one has surveyed them.

Researchers have studied the bottom and top of the food chain, studying phytoplankton and seabirds and mammals, respectively, but not the fish that occupy the middle rungs, he said.
"It wouldn't take very many boats to wipe out populations before we know what they are," Highleyman said.

Arctic cod, Boreogadus saida, swimming among sea ice north of Barrow, Alaska.

Photo by Elizabeth Calvert Siddon/NOAA/UAF

In the 1970s and '80s, South Korea, China, Poland, Japan and other countries hauled millions of tonnes of pollock from the international waters in the central Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. A conservation agreement was signed in 1994, closing the area to pollock fishing until the stock rebounded. It has yet to recover.

Scientific experts from the Arctic coastal states and the additional nations have held meetings in parallel with the ongoing policy meetings, to share information on Arctic fish stocks and to develop research and monitoring priorities for the Central Arctic Ocean.

One of the key questions they hope to study are the links between fish stocks and the adjacent ecosystems.

The policy talks are discussing three different possible approaches: modifying the signed declaration to include other nations in a non-binding agreement; drafting a new binding international agreement; and negotiating the creation of a regional fisheries management organization.

All three could also be combined in a "stepwise" approach.

Both the United States and Canada support a binding agreement on Arctic fisheries.
"It will fill an important gap in the ocean governance system," Karmenu Vella, the European Union's commissioner for the environment, fisheries and maritime affairs, said in a statement.
The next round of negotiations will be held in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in July.

Links :

• Arctic Journal : China, Japan and South Korea in the Arctic, Pooling resources
• Reuters : China wants ships to use faster Arctic route opened by global warming
• The Guardian : Marine reserve status for whole Arctic region is best way to protect it / A new Titanic? US and Canada prepare for worst as luxury Arctic cruise sets sail / China sets its sights on the Northwest Passage as a potential trade boon
• HuffingtonPost : China's Northwest Passage Ambitions Could Challenge Canada's Sovereignty: Expert 

UFO Unidentified Floating Object : futuristic sustainable house boat

Lazzarini is also currently developing a U.F.O. prototype which in this case stands for Unidentified Floating Object.

The vessel is actually a futuristic sustainable house boat with multiple levels, spacious living zones and a submerged glass encased lower bedroom.

"It's a floating solar powered house with a 12 hp electric engine that is able to move the floating structure for short distances," explains Rasini.

From Gizmag by John Anderson

While you can always head for the hills to wait out the apocalypse, a more stylish option could be a fully sustainable floating home from Italian mini yacht-maker Jet Capsule.

The company has drawn up a concept for a saucer-shaped UFO, or Unidentified Floating Object, which offers a completely off-grid existence floating on the ocean. 

 The UFO measure 12.5 meters (41 feet) in diameter

According to the company's co-founders, Pierpaolo Lazzarini and Luca Solla, the UFO is intended for "living in a floating house and moving slowly around the world."

"Slowly" in this case means a leisurely maximum speed of 3.5 knots (6.5 km/h, 4 mph), using a waterjet-propelled Torqeedo Deep Blue 1800 electric motor.

This motor is connected to a battery that draws energy generated from 40 sq. m (430 sq. ft.) of solar panels in a closable lid atop the structure.

Additional energy sources can be provided through optional wind and water turbines located on the top and below the main disc of the UFO, respectively, creating enough power to operate the home and motor.

The UFO's bottom, submerged level includes a large window for viewing sea life

The UFO's electric motor is powered by a battery that draws its energy from the rooftop solar panels

The company says an onboard water generator would be used for converting rain or seawater to fresh drinking water, as well as watering a vegetable garden located on a deck that encircles the structure and measures 12.5 m (41 ft) in diameter.

Two half-spherical shells of fiberglass make up the two stories of the interior housing, with flexible floor plans for various configurations.

Generally, the orb-shaped home will consist of a transformable kitchen and dining/living area on a 20-sq. m (215-sq. ft.) top level, with stairs leading down to a 10-sq. m (107-sq. ft.) submerged lower level with bathroom and bedroom surrounded by a large window for viewing sea life.

The rooms of the UFO are multi-functional and offer underwater views

To keep the craft stable, the UFO uses a special elastic anchor system.

"The main structure of the floating object can be aligned with the compass, keeping the position angle oriented on the desired cardinal direction, even in rough sea conditions," say the designers.

The company is currently seeking investors to build the first working prototype, at an estimated cost of US$800,000, with homes produced after that estimated at $200,000, which is actually cheaper than the average price of an, albeit larger, houseboat.

Links :

• DailyMail : The rooms of the UFO are multi-functional and offer underwater views
• First underwater 'Floating Seahorse' villa built in Dubai / video