Robots dive into every aspect of life and replace humans. Literally. This week I visited the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and watched a demonstration of a diving robot, which was developed to operated below water surfaces. His task is to help with archeological and scientific research, but also maintain and service under water infrastructure such as pipelines ocean water cables.

Gerald Brantner, PhD student from Vienna, who’s been leading the diving robot research, and led us through the lab. The diving robot weighs 180 kilogram, and both the software for simulation and control, as well as the software on the robot were developed by him and students.

Many parts of the hardware come from third parties, but the most important details came from the department. Last year the robot was tested for the first time outside Stanford’s swimming pool, when it swam 100 meter under the ocean surface right off the coast of Marseille in France. There it helped research a sunken galleon from the 16th century.

Gerald showed us the software, which allows an operator on a ship to control the robot. The control includes sensors, which make the user feel the haptic sensation.

Here is a video from Stanford showing more details about the robot and the development history.