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Local English daily Gomantak Times dated 15th
June, 2006
Robot Maya to help scientists in underwater
research - by Avit Bagle avit.bagle@gmail.com
DONA PAULA: No need for NIO scientists and
divers to go underwater to take pictures or collect
material. Now a robot will do the job for them
as they remain on the vessel -- dry and hassle-free
- and monitor its movements. A team of National
Institute of Oceanography (NIO) scientists
has developed an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
[AUV] at Dona Paula, the first of its kind in
India, . to collect data and imagery in the ocean,
lakes, estuaries, rivers and dams. This robot
platform called Maya - with a diameter of 0.234
metres and a length of 1.8 metres -- that can
be programmed to dive and to maintain control
at any depth in a water body, change course, follow
seabed terrain, avoid obstacles and return
to base after the mission. Says a NIO scientist,
"Maya works on the principle: a single underwater
motor is used to propel the vehicle. Two stern
planes and a single rudder control diving and
heading maneuver respectively." The
nose section is removable and different sensors
can be fitted onto it for specific mission at
sea.
An Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle [AUV] developed by the NIO
scientists at Dona Paula
The AUV can receive commands from the shore over
high-.speed radio link and data download can take
place over the same link. Underwater navigation
uses the Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) and a dead
reckoning algorithm that estimates position below
surface. Surface navigation is based on GPS. "The
Maya AUV has.many applications in oceanography,"
the .? sources said. Says Shivanand Prabhudesai,
NIO scientist marine instrumentation division,
"It took us a year to carry out tests on
it." On May 12, 2006, Maya performed two
missions to collect information in Iddukki Dam,
Kerala. In the first one, it was programmed to
dive to different depths in a staircase pattern
up to a maximum of 21m while in the second, it
dived and maintained 1m depth for 4 kms continuously.
While the whole project went on for two years
and cost Rs 2 crore, it was funded by Department
of Information Technology. Called Maya, this
AUV was developed by scientists Dr Elgar Desa,
R Madhan, Shivanand Prabhudesai, Pramod Maurya,
Gajanan Navelkar, Sanjeev Afzalpurkar, A Mascar-enhas,
R G Prabhu Desai, S N Bandodkar and a group of
young project assistants.
Gomantak Marathi Daily
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