ROV to help define underwater borders
An ROV built by researchers in the Irish Republic has been designed to perform seabed surveys down to a depth of 1,000 metres. It is named Latis, after the Celtic goddess of beer and water, which sounds a strange, and not entirely welcome, mix. In fact I was in a bar on Saturday whose manager seemed to be a worshipper of Latis, at least that’s the only way I can explain the rather disappointing pint of Spitfire I was drinking.
Latis has a unique fibre optic gyroscope and something called a Doppler Velocity Log to monitor its speed and direction, allowing the ROV’s position to be calculated with pinpoint accuracy. It can be towed to cover large areas quickly, or can be propel itself in small, confined areas. It could be used to help produce underwater maps, carry out marine surveys or be used to help with environmental impact assessments.
13th May was a deadline for countries to lay claims to extensions to their contintental shelf, and, by extension, the area within which they can exploit natural resources. Consequently there is currently a lot of interest in how these claims are going to be assessed, since in many cases the claims from several countries overlap. For example Canada, Denmark and Russia are all claiming the North Pole. Latis could help play a part in resolving such competing claims.
The photo above, and the story came from the BBC website.
