Posted on 03/26/2005 7:23:37 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Homo Sapiens:Scientist plunges into work creating deep-sea probes
03/26/2005
By TOSHIHIDE UEDA,The Asahi Shimbun
Developing a robot that can independently quarry the secrets of the deep sea is Taro Aoki's dream.
For now, the closest he has come is the ``Urashima,'' an autonomous underwater vehicle developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Aoki, 57, is the program director for the Urashima, which takes its name from a traditional Japanese folk-tale character who rode a sea turtle and visited a deep-sea castle.
The real Urashima is loaded with state-of-the-art technology. Cable-less and unmanned, it travels underwater by drawing power from a fuel cell and following instructions from a built-in computer.
The deep-sea probe recently established a world record, traveling 317 kilometers consecutively at a depth of 800 meters in late February.
``Our plan was to stop at 300 kilometers,'' Aoki says. ``But then we wanted to make sure researchers from the U.S. and Europe wouldn't be coming at us afterward with something petty like, `Are you sure you weren't a kilometer short?'''
In 1995, Japanese scientists successfully sent Kaiko, an unmanned remotely operated vehicle, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench.
At 10,911 meters, the trench is the deepest on Earth.
Kaiko received transmission and power through cables connected to a mother ship.
Now, with Urashima's success, JAMSTEC has become the undisputed forerunner of the field of unmanned submersibles.
Aoki graduated from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo.
His got his first job in 1972 at a top manufacturer of newspaper rotary printers. There, Aoki was involved in developing a computerized system that manages automatic presses, sorting and packing.
In 1978, Aoki moved to the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC since April 2004) hoping to be involved in robot development.
At the time, mainstream research focused on developing manned submersibles. But Aoki stuck to pursuing unmanned technology.
His theory was: ``Don't underestimate the dangers of the sea. Nothing is more safe than going unmanned.''
Aoki and his team have high hopes that their next generation Urashima-2 will be able to cross the Arctic Ocean, traveling 3,000 km, and that their following Urashima-3 will cross the Pacific, traveling 10,000 km.
Their ultimate goal is to come up with a deep-sea robot with artificial intelligence that can freely dive underwater and bring back marine-life specimens and rocks that will help reveal deep-sea secrets.
Hard at work on the project, Aoki muses: ``Maybe the robot should be shaped like a crab, rather than a fish. That would give it more maneuverability.''(IHT/Asahi: March 26,2005)
Ping!
Something like that could be useful for undersea archeological studies of the Bearing strait.
--Clive Cussler, take note---
Reckon why they start the title with "Homo Sapiens"? (And the correct spelling is Homo sapiens. You don't capitalize the species epithet. Only the genus epithet.)
Beats me. A Japanese quirk?
They could probably hire Ted Kennedy to drive the thing...he has some experience behind the wheel of vehicles at sea.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
It seems to have nothing to do with the article, unless they are assuming their readers would be confused about what species was constructing this vehicle.
I have seen bottom at 1500 feet via a ROV and it was less interesting than I thought. Just some mud,rocks and angler fish.
Since the story was originally in Japanese and translated, sometimes there isn't a correct straight translation. As to why they capitalized both homo and sapien, that's getting pretty esoteric to ding even a writer about. Besides, the two words before the ":" are the title, and all words in titles are capitalized, except for minor words like "and" and "is".
"In 1995, Japanese scientists successfully sent Kaiko, an unmanned remotely operated vehicle, to the bottom of
the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench."
Is this when you woke up from your nap?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.