Humanoid diving robot explores shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean

Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they're underwater explorers, too. OceanOneK resembles a human diver from the front, with arms and hands and eyes that have 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full color. The back of the robot has computers and eight multidirectional thrusters that help it carefully maneuver the sites of fragile sunken ships. OceanOneK, here doing an experiment in a swimming pool at Stanford University, resembles a human diver. When an operator at the ocean's surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot's haptic (touch-based) feedback system causes the person to feel the water's resistance as well as the contours of artifacts.