Professor Michael Jenkin, professor in York University’s Faculty of Science & Engineering and a member of the Centre for Vision Research, is in the news again. NTD, a New York-based television station, covered the AQUA robot on November 5:

This marine robot is called AQUA, and its creators believe it will help researchers better explore and collect data in the planets' oceans.

Equipped with an array of sensors and cameras, the robot is designed for use in dangerous places where human divers would be at risk.

AQUA's greatest asset is its ability to interact with a human controller.

Jenkin believes his robot will open new vistas for deep-sea exploration. “Diving gets more dangerous the deeper you go. It gets more dangerous if you are in an overhead environment. So you can remain a reasonable distance from the robot and in reasonable safety and have the robot and have the robot do the more dangerous thing. And so that allows you to have the robot go into shipwrecks or explore partially collapsed environments instead of putting the operator at risk.”

More details about the AQUA robot project are available in the Research News archive.

Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin