Humanoid Robot Mermaid Exists, Hunts for Sunken Treasures

Robot mermaids exist! Researchers from Stanford University have created a humanoid robot or robot mermaid to explore sunken treasures and relics.

Tagged as OceanOne, the robo-mermaid uses artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology to allow human beings to operate it remotely, as per Stanford News. The robot mermaid looks like a human with hands that are installed with sensors to enable OceanOne to discern if an item is fragile or not. It also has two cameras as its eyes and an artificial human brain for navigating the deep sea and analyzing data.

According to CNN, OceanOne's first journey to the deep water was to retrieve a vase from the ruins of Louis XIV's ship La Lune. The said flagship sank 32 kilometers off the coast of Toulon, France in November 1664.

Oussama Khatib, a computer science professor at Stanford University, piloted the maiden voyage of the robot mermaid. Khatib was aboard a boat on the surface while he piloted OceanOne underwater.

OceanOne was originally developed to explore the corals in the depths of the Red Sea, which is only reachable through the use of robotic crafts like the robot mermaid.

According to Khatib, this is just the start for the usage of robots to replace human divers when it comes to deep-sea explorations that are too dangerous.

"The intent here is to have a human diving virtually, to put the human out of harm’s way. Having a machine that has human characteristics that can project the human diver’s embodiment at depth is going to be amazing," Khatib told Stanford News.

Gizmodo notes that researchers have already used remotely operated rovers in the past to explore the deep sea. However, what makes OceanOne different is it is not only limited to a "crude robotic arm or pincer." It has sensor points that allow the human pilot above water to feel and analyze the object. It is also much smaller, enabling it to squeeze in tight areas for further exploration.