Shadow III: Robot Octopus Tracker

Posted 29 Sep 2004 at 15:51 UTC by steve

A University of Arizona press release describes the Shadow III, an autonomous robot sub designed to track the elusive Giant Pacific Octopus. The project was funded by the NSF and built by students at the University of Arizona and two other universities. The robot was successfully tested in July and recorded video of a giant octopus hunting shrimp (MPEG 6MB) and exhibiting deimatic behaviour (MPEG 3.5MB) during the test dive. Prior to that, the robot was tested in the 676,000 gallon ocean in Biosphere 2. When the robot becomes fully operational next year, it should be able to track and follow octopi (or octopuses) for long periods of time.

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Robotus Interruptus?, posted 1 Oct 2004 at 05:30 UTC by roschler » (Master)

Half kidding here, but I hope robots like that don't interrupt the mating habits of the octopus (like having the dog watching you and your mate get frisky). Very cool videos though, can't get enough robot videos!