I know a guy (also in Seattle, and a 60 year old white guy) that designs and builds submersible drill rigs that can be propelled to the ocean floor and drill into the sea floor a ways (100 feet?).
He was showing me the control system which was based around a gaming chair and gaming controls which he also bragged about how inexpensive they were compared to other systems.
Of course the chair and operator are on a nice ship at the surface while the drill rig is just a “robot” down in the depths.
And I bet it had a tether..................