www.sea-technology.com March 2016 / st 41
while testing the Falkor's ROV capabilities. One of these was
a very old timber vessel—the bottles it was carrying were
from around 1650. Another was a fshing boat that had van-
ished without trace.
It is always sobering when there is a human element to
the wrecks we fnd. As oceanographers, we ply our trade on
the ocean, and seeing ships that have foundered remind us
all of our own mortality.
However, if we can solve a mystery or put a name to a
wreck in the course of conducting science, then it fnally
offers some closure.
Future ROVs, AUVs
I am now working on developing ROVs capable of reach-
ing the deepest parts of the ocean. The long-term goal of SOI
is to build three scientifc ROVs with varying capabilities.
The frst vehicle is in the design stage and will be 4,500-m
rated, the second vehicle will be 7,000-m rated, and the
fnal vehicle will be 11,000-m rated. They promise to be
exciting and very capable ROVs.
In the future, we will see better communication between
subsurface, surface and aerial autonomous assets. The natu-
ral evolution will point toward a lot more autonomous sys-
tems that will transit the ocean with sensor suites and al-
low real-time data acquisition at a fraction of the cost of a
(Left) A plaque that was dropped on the wreck to commemo-
rate those who died on Scott's expedition. (Right) This screen-
shot from Falkor's EM 710 multibeam system shows the wreck
of the Terra Nova.