Scientists at Tallinn University of Technology created the underwater robot U-CAT - a highly maneuverable robot turtle - to penetrate shipwrecks, aiding archaeologists in their inspection of the ruins.
The U-CAT's "locomotion principle" is similar to sea turtles has four independently-driven flippers, making it easy to move and operate. The device can swim forward and backward, up and down and turn on spot in all directions. The robot also sports an onboard camera, footage taken by the camera can be used to reconstruct the underwater site.
"The so-called biomimetic robots, robots based on animals and plants, is an increasing trend in robotics where we try to overcome the technological bottlenecks by looking at alternative technical solutions provided by nature," professor Maarja Kruusmaa, a Head of Centre for Biorobotics at the university, said in a statement.
In a press release, the school said the underwater robots available today - which are typically used in the oil and gas industry - are too big and too expensive to be used for diving inside shipwrecks.
Shipwrecks are currently explored by divers, but this is an expensive and time consuming procedure and often too dangerous for the divers to undertake. U-CAT is designed with the purpose of offering an affordable alternative to human divers.
"U-CAT is specifically designed to meet the end-user requirements. Conventional underwater robots use propellers for locomotion. Fin propulsors of U-CAT can drive the robot in all directions without disturbing water and beating up silt from the bottom, which would decrease visibility inside the shipwreck," Taavi Salumäe, the designer of the U-CAT concept and researcher in Centre for Biorobotics, Tallinn University of Technology, said in a statement.
The science team will show the U-CAT robot at The Robot Safari in London Science Museum from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.
