[Tyler]

War Robots Put to Peaceful Uses at AUVfest 2008
     

Every year, the US Navy's Office of
Naval Research (ONR) sponsors an
Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle (AUV) festival. The theme of this year's
festival, which ran from May 12-23, was "Partnership Runs Deep: ONR
Unmanned Mine Hunting Technologies help NOAA Explore Sunken History."
Not surprisingly, the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) co-sponsored
this year's festival. Together, the groups provided archaeologists
with autonomous underwater robots originally developed for warfare but
adapted to
scientific research. The modified AUVs were used "to explore historic
shipwrecks
in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay including two British warships lost
during the American Revolution." A day
by day log of events can be found on NOAA's Ocean Explorer website.
   

http://robots.net/article/2544.html