High-tech robots reveal details of the deep

On land, we map details of the Earth with our eyes and hands, and use satellite images to trace out broader regions. We take for granted what we can easily see until we try to map landscapes hidden beneath the ocean. Engineers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have designed two types of underwater robots to solve this problem. A torpedo-like, autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, first creates a map of the seafloor. Then, having examined these maps, MBARI scientists choose sites of interest t