Diving deep: robot explores waters in central Mexico

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Diving deep: robot explores waters in central Mexico

Postby Wayne Harrison » Jan 23, 2007 9:45 am

Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute recently developed software to be used in a deep-sea exploration project called DepthX.

Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DepthX) is a mission to deploy an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to the bottom of Zacaton Cenote, a sinkhole in central Mexico over 1000 feet deep. Dr. David Wettergreen of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute developed the robot’s navigational software. Wettergreen’s past research has focused on robotics exloration, but this is his first underwater mission with Carnegie Mellon.

Wettergreen said that the project’s ultimate goal is to study the sinkhole’s underwater environment by collecting water samples while also creating a three-dimensional map of the sinkhole. “We need a vehicle...that can move through complex cave systems without getting lost or trapped,” said Wettergreen.

<a href="http://thetartan.org/2007/1/22/scitech/depth">Full Story</a>
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Zacaton Cenote

Postby jonsdigs » Jan 23, 2007 10:54 am

Wasn't Zacaton Sheck Exley's nemesis?
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Postby Wayne Harrison » Jan 23, 2007 1:41 pm

After the last expedition, Bill Stone made a presentation of this project and what they plan to do in the future. Their goal is to surpass the Krubera depth making the Cheve system the deepest cave with a depth around 2,500 m. If you have not seen the video with this presentation, please do it now, it's amazing good. The URL of the Video is
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5797001505961854840&q=bill+stone
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Re: Zacaton Cenote

Postby Squirrel Girl » Jan 23, 2007 4:37 pm

jonsdigs wrote:Wasn't Zacaton Sheck Exley's nemesis?
Yes.
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Thanks for the link to Bill Stone's talk

Postby Mark Ostrander » Jan 24, 2007 3:55 pm

Wayne, I'm glad you posted the link to Bill's talk. I watched the whole thing and enjoyed the heck out of it. Lots of information. Wish it was a little higher resolution, but I'll take it. Thanks.
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Postby Wayne Harrison » Jan 24, 2007 5:56 pm

Sure thing. The link (and the text that went with it) was sent to me by Zenas of World Caving News. Thanks to him, too!
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Postby zenas » Jan 27, 2007 9:31 am

Unfortunately this device is heavy and large to be used in cave systems like J2 or Cheve. More infos regarding this device:

A robot to explore deep water in Mexico

This spring, an underwater robot named Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) will start to explore the depths of the Zacaton Cenote in central Mexico, which is over 1,000 feet deep (more than 300 meters). According to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), this robot will navigate through this sink hole by using a software called simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM. The goal is to discover what kinds of organisms are still living in the deepest flooded sink hole in the world. If the experiment is a success, this robot will be reconditioned and reprogrammed to explore the Solar system to discover other possible living organisms.

Details: http://www.primidi.com/2007/01/23.html
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http://www.zenas.gr/WCN


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Link

Postby Baazalung » Feb 1, 2007 1:58 pm

Wayne, the link is awesome. Not the link, the presentation.
Whatever, you got the point! :oops:


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Postby Squirrel Bait » Feb 2, 2007 8:56 pm

Do you know of any theories about heavy compression of gases doe to the high pressure of deeper waters?? Oxygen that sinks? ext?? or how such things could be tested??
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Postby yvonnedroms » Feb 13, 2007 1:43 pm

You can follow the DEPTHX field reports on Bill Stone's website. DEPHTX is his NASA-funded project.

<http://www.stoneaerospace.com/news-/news-zacaton-mission1.php>

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