Panaji: India's premier ocean research
organisation, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), is
exploring the possibility of commercially marketing its
submarine robot.
The Goa-based institute three years ago has successfully
tried and tested autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which
can be a substitute for divers to collect data from the bottom
of the ocean in dangerous situations.
NIO is now trying to commercially exploit the AUV named
Maya after signing a technology commercialisation agreement
with VEA Automation and Robotics Private Limited, Coimbatore.
The sources in the institute confirmed that the agreement
is for five years.
The scientists from NIO put together the technology in
2006, which has the capability to execute underwater
exploration up to 200 meters depth.
In the circumstances where divers don't dare to dive or
advised against diving, the underwater vehicle can do the job
and return back to the surface, an NIO scientist said.
Programmed to take different kind of expeditions, the
vehicle has the capability to come back home, in case of a
hardware failure, he said.
The AUV, which is propelled robot platform, is mounted
with on-board computer, power packs and vehicle payloads which
enable automatic control, navigation and guidance of the
vehicle, he said.
According to NIO's official website, Maya can acquire
data from on board sensors to sense physical, biological and
chemical properties in the ocean, lakes, estuaries, rivers and
dams.
The Maya AUV has many applications in oceanography as it
can collect standard oceanographic data in confined areas; can
detect phytoplankton blooms with the help of optical
radiometers and fluorometer; it can be used as a platform for
testing new marine sensor technologies, the website mentions.
They can be programmed to dive and to maintain control at
any given depth layer in a water body, to navigate by changing
course at a chosen depth, to follow seabed terrain, and when a
mission is accomplished to return home, NIO said describing
about this 1.7 metres long robot.
The technology was developed by a team of scientists
comprising Elgar Desa, R Madhan, S Prabhudesai, Pramod
Maurya, Gajanan Navelkar, A Mascarenhas, RG Prabhu Desai,
Sanjeev Afzulpurkar, Nitin Dabolkar, S N Bandodkar and a group
of young Project Assistants in the Marine Instrumentation
Division of NIO, Goa.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 13, 2009, 18:19