An innovative marine robot, called ecoSUB, has been successfully trialled off the Orkney Isles in northern Scotland during a marine robot demonstrator mission co-ordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).The ecoSUBs are a new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) developed by Planet Ocean in partnership with the NOC. The vehicles are less than lm in length and weigh only 4kg and are called 'micro-AUVs'. Despite their small size, they are capable of diving to 500m and have sufficient battery power to stay underwater for several hours.Two of the new ecoSUB vehicles were deployed from the Royal Navy's vessel HMS Enterprise during the latest Marine Autonomous Systems in Support of Marine Observations (MASSMO) trial. The ecoSUBs successfully collected oceanographic data to depths of 100m, which will be compared with those collected by traditional 'over-the-side' instruments deployed from the ship, allowing the Royal Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dst1) to assess the benefits of this new robotic technology.
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