Panaji:
India's premier ocean research organisation, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), is exploring the possibility of commercially marketing its submarine robot.
Three years ago, the Goa-based institute has successfully tried and tested autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which can be a substitute for divers to collect data from the bottom of the ocean in dangerous situations.
NIO is now trying to commercially exploit the AUV named Maya after signing a technology commercialisation agreement with VEA Automation and Robotics Private Limited, Coimbatore.
The sources in the institute confirmed that the agreement is for five years.
The scientists from NIO put together the technology in 2006, which has the capability to execute underwater exploration up to 200 meters depth.
In the circumstances where divers don't dare to dive or advised against diving, the underwater vehicle can do the job and return back to the surface, an NIO scientist said.
Programmed to take different kind of expeditions, the vehicle has the capability to come back home, in case of a hardware failure, he said.
The AUV, which is propelled robot platform, is mounted with on-board computer, power packs and vehicle payloads which enable automatic control, navigation and guidance of the vehicle, he said.
According to NIO's official website, Maya can acquire data from on board sensors to sense physical, biological and chemical properties in the ocean, lakes, estuaries, rivers and dams.
The Maya AUV has many applications in oceanography as it can collect standard oceanographic data in confined areas; can detect phytoplankton blooms with the help of optical radiometers and fluorometer; it can be used as a platform for testing new marine sensor technologies, the website mentions.
They can be programmed to dive and to maintain control at any given depth layer in a water body, to navigate by changing course at a chosen depth, to follow seabed terrain, and when a mission is accomplished to return home, NIO said describing about this 1.7 metres long robot.
The technology was developed by a team of scientists comprising Elgar Desa, R Madhan, S Prabhudesai, Pramod Maurya, Gajanan Navelkar, A Mascarenhas, RG Prabhu Desai, Sanjeev Afzulpurkar, Nitin Dabolkar, S N Bandodkar and a group of young Project Assistants in the Marine Instrumentation Division of NIO, Goa.