Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Undersea Bots Monitor the Gulf Oil Spill

by Caleb Johnson on June 18, 2010 at 02:40 PM

With oil continuing to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are struggling to contain an already unprecedented environmental disaster, and part of that is understanding and monitoring the Gulf's conditions. According to Tech News Daily, researchers from Rutgers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Delaware, the U.S. Navy and other institutions have recently deployed eight robots that glide around the Gulf collecting data from its water.

The robots, which are controlled by scientists in a lab, use a water propulsion system. Taking on water causes the bot to sink below the surface. When it's time to rise, the bot expels water and floats to the top. This type of propulsion enables the bots to stay out at sea for longer periods of time, since it takes a minimal toll on batteries. (You can monitor the bots' locations here.) Each bot has sensors that measure data, like water temperature, salinity and dissolved organic material, which can be remotely transmitted back to a lab for scientists to predict how the oil spill might spread. [From: Tech News Daily and DeepWater Horizon Oil Spill, via: Live Science]

Tags: environment, gulf of mexico, gulf oil spill, GulfOfMexicoOilSpill, GulfOilSpill, ocean, oil, oil spill, research, robot, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular