This robot dives to depths humans dare not attempt - and it can bring people along for the ride without them getting wet. The Stanford-built OceanOne is filled with compressible oil to offset the crushing pressures experienced when 100 metres underwater, and AI-assisted navigation steers it clear of obstacles. Its operators remain on land, observing on screen everything the robot captures, using joysticks to drive it and guiding its hands through a feedback mechanism that relays tactile sensations. "It's impossible to let a robot act alone in such an environment: it will fail," says Professor Oussama Khatib, OceanOne's creator. "The only way you can guarantee success is connecting a worker through a haptic device to the robot.

Oussama Khatib held his breath as he swam through the wreck of La Lune, 100 meters below the Mediterranean. The flagship of King Louis XIV sank here in 1664, 20 miles off the southern coast of France, and no human had touched the ruins – or the countless treasures and artifacts the ship once carried – in the centuries since. OceanOne, a humanoid robotic diver from Stanford, allows new underwater exploration capabilities. With guidance from a team of skilled deep-sea archaeologists who had studied the site, Khatib, a professor of computer science at Stanford, spotted a grapefruit-size vase. He hovered precisely over the vase, reached out, felt its contours and weight, and stuck a finger inside to get a good grip.

This "robotic mermaid" could be more than just a clever way to retrieve sunken treasure (and disappoint amorous sailors). It hints at how humans and robots may someday work together in all sorts of difficult environments. The submersible humanoid robot, called OceanOne, was developed at Stanford University. It recently retrieved priceless artifacts from King Louis XIV's La Lune, a 350-year-old galleon wrecked off Toulon in southern France in 1664. OceanOne has two arms, a head, and a tail-like appendage fitted with motorized propellers.

Mermaids, and their less famous comrades the mermen, are beautiful beings that have mastered the underwater world. They also have a more sinister rep as vicious bastards that drag sailors to their watery doom. So perhaps it's no wonder that a new mermaid-like robot from Stanford, the OceanOne--with its graceful, streamlined body but oh, also, claws and dead eyes--elicits mixed emotions. Sure, it looks like you and me, but it's just rather more, well, electronic. Grab a pitchfork and vow to hunt it down. But OceanOne is in fact an emblem of a battle over the future of robotics: Humanoid bots are getting roboticists riled up, and not just because they're creepy.

Researchers from Stanford University have created a humanoid robot or robot mermaid to explore sunken treasures and relics. Tagged as OceanOne, the robo-mermaid uses artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology to allow human beings to operate it remotely, as per Stanford News. The robot mermaid looks like a human with hands that are installed with sensors to enable OceanOne to discern if an item is fragile or not. It also has two cameras as its eyes and an artificial human brain for navigating the deep sea and analyzing data. According to CNN, OceanOne's first journey to the deep water was to retrieve a vase from the ruins of Louis XIV's ship La Lune.

In Mediterranean waters, off the coast of France, a diver recently visited the shipwreck La Lune -- a vesssel in King Louis XIV's fleet -- which lay untouched and unexplored on the ocean bottom since it sank in 1664. But the wreck's first nonaquatic visitor in centuries wasn't human -- it was a robot. Dubbed "OceanOne," the bright orange diving robot resembles a mecha-mermaid. It measures about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length and has a partly human form: a torso, a head -- with stereoscopic vision -- and articulated arms. Its lower section holds its computer "brain," a power supply, and an array of eight multidirectional thrusters.

A Stanford robotics team has built a humanoid robot that can stand in as "the physical representation" of a remote pilot -- a swimming avatar for dangerous aquatic expeditions. The robot, OceanOne, is a two-handed, anthropomorphic'bot that provides haptic feedback, meaning the pilot can "feel" what the robot reaches out and touches. OceanOne's first trip was to the wreck of the La Lune, a ship that sank off the coast of France in 1664, where the robot recovered artifacts. The goal is for OceanOne to help out on missions that are too dangerous for human divers. While OceanOne is still a prototype, the project could eventually become a fleet of robotic divers, working together as human pilots guide them from afar.

Robotics scientists at the US's Stanford University have achieved a remarkable first: they have successfully sent an automated avatar – which they describe as a robo-mermaid – down to an ancient shipwreck to retrieve a vase from the sunken vessel. La Lune, the flagship of Louis XIV of France, sank 20 miles off the south coast city of Toulon in 1664. Only a few dozen of the hundreds of men on board survived. The wreck, which lies at a depth of 100 metres, had never been disturbed until the OceanOne robot craft reached it two weeks ago and recovered the grapefruit-size vase. The humanoid diving robot was piloted, using virtual reality techniques, by Oussama Khatib, professor of computer science at Stanford.

Even with bottled oxygen and elite training, there are underwater locations that lie well beyond our physical capabilities. But via haptic feedback technology and artificial intelligence, Stanford University's humanoid diving robot is now putting the ocean's depths within human reach. In its maiden expedition, the OceanOne droid has just scoured an untouched shipwreck off the coast of France and returned with a delicate, 17th century vase in its grip. Researchers are now eyeing future voyages to coral reefs, oil rigs and underwater disaster zones. With our deep sea diving capabilities only taking us so far, we have long sought to send robots down below to do the investigating for us.

A new invention has emerged from the sea as a robotic humanoid capable to explore the ocean while its driver is safe into a boat. This is not a dream but a reality taken off from a science-fiction page. This machine was designed by Oussama Kathib, a professor at Stanford University in the field of computer science in an attempt to develop better ways to study the deepest oceans and all treasures the sea may hide. It was created as the perfect representation of the human being.The machine was named OceanOne and its capability for underwater exploration is incredible. This robot has two hands, a stereo vision and the best of all: the robot driver can feel what the robot is doing without the dangers or time limits associated with diving.