Robots Could Unlock Oil and Gas Secrets Beneath Arctic Ice

摘要

If the massive oil and gas reserves thought to lie north of the Arctic Circle are ever developed, it could be a robot that makes the first find.Huge advances in the technology required to explore under the sea have been made over the past 20 to 30 years. These include manned submersibles that can travel at great depths to robots that have evolved from their first form as simple vehicles tied to the surface by tethers into autonomous undersea vehicles (AUVs) that can glide on underwater currents for dozens of miles. They have been developed to the point where they can go into ultra-deep ocean waters that until recently have been off-limits because no vessel could go that deep.