Ad Astra! JPL's Autonomous Undersea Drones: Science Fiction in the News

Autonomous drones are important for ocean research, but today s drones don t make decisions on the fly, said Steve Chien, one of the research team s members. Chien leads the Artificial Intelligence Group at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. In order to study unpredictable ocean phenomena, we need to develop submersibles that can navigate and make decisions on their own, and in real-time. Doing so would help us understand our own oceans -- and maybe those on other planets...