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Robotic vehicles and deep sea tourism
“There are significant risks associated with deploying vehicles at these depths,” Prof Stefan Williams, University of Sydney director digital sciences initiative, tells the Guardian of the missing submersible.
It is relatively recently that robotic vehicles have been considered and used for deep sea tourism.
Williams points to the 1970s as the start of “these sorts of vehicles” being used to support scientific research. “They have made some important contributions to our understanding of the deep sea.”
Uncrewed robotic vehicles are used routinely for supporting deep sea research as well as in the offshore industry, with a relatively limited number of crewed vessels used for scientific research, Williams says.
Crewed vessels allows experiencing environments firsthand, but the pressured involved limits viewpoints – crewed vessels have to rely on cameras and sensors to survey the environment.
Even though advances in communication systems, navigation instruments, engineering design tools and new materials have contributed to innovation in the design of these platforms, Williams says operating in depths of 4000m and beyond remains a challenge – especially if the expedition is for tourism:
The move into deep sea tourism may introduce new risks. There may be more commercial pressure to be turning the vehicles around quickly in preparation for dives and new designs need extensive testing to ensure that they are meeting their design specifications and performance requirements.
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