This image depicts a simulated scenario in a special pool in San Diego, California, in 2017. Robotics can help make dangerous jobs like this one safer.When it comes to clearing the ocean of explosives, the British Royal Navy is turning to robots. Announced April 12, the Ministry of Defense is awarding £32 million to Dorset-based company Atlas Elektronik toan “autonomous mine-hunting capability.
“The threat posed by sea mines is constantly evolving,” said Simon Bollom, CEO of the UK’s Defence Equipment and Support Board, in a statement., equipped with synthetic aperture sonar and advanced software. The robots, known as Medium Autonomous Underwater Vessels once in service, are based on Atlas Elektronik’s SeaCat, a modular robot with a torpedo-shaped body and a range of sensors and systems it can mount.
Once engineers solved the problem of creating an explosive that could wait at sea, navies had to figure out how to clear those explosives from the water safely. Over 100 years ago, in “the magazine discussed methods of making short-duration mines, as well as defusing already-placed mines with electrical fuses.