These are among the most perilous of environments on planet Earth, places where few humans dare tread. They ain't got nothin', though, on waters of our planet's polar regions, where frigid temperatures and considerable pressures would snuff a puny human like you in a heartbeat. This is the stuff their tough-as-hell bodies were made for. But it comes at a price: Getting the bot back to its icebreaking boat alive can be more challenging than communicating with a Mars rover millions of miles away. Seabed doesn't swim like your typical autonomous underwater vehicle.

Researchers at Harvey Mudd College have developed a novel autonomous underwater vehicle. Harvey Mudd College researchers working on a long-term project to unite robotics and archaeology have developed a novel autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can explore the sea floor looking for signs of wrecked ships. The researchers also created a new artificial intelligence (AI) system to help better analyze the images of the sea bottom, as well as algorithms to improve the search and navigation of a target area. The team initially plots a large area for the AUV to explore by beaming sound waves down from the water's surface, creating acoustic images of what lies beneath. The AI then ranks the most promising areas for further exploration, looking for indicators such as long shadows and sharp corners that could indicate a manmade object.