Living Smart

012 013 I ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY Let’s not tread water on robot tech Prof. Tim WOO Associate Professor of Engineering Education, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering I n October, an aircraft crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board. Data retrieved from one of the plane’ s black boxes revealed the aircraft experienced problems with its airspeed indicators on its past four flights, although investigations are still ongoing to determine the cause of the crash. Underwater missions such as these to retrieve black boxes are not as easy as people think. The unpredictable nature of currents and extreme conditions sometimes hamper operations as it may be too dangerous to send in human divers. But using underwater robots, or drones, as an alternative in the deep sea is not without its challenges. The biggest challenge is the need to improve stability during the deployment of devices in the face of waves and currents; the density of water affects the floating power of devices under water, and there is also concern over water-proof capabilities and signal transfers. In most situations, signal transfers are done by wire, as wireless transmissions cannot produce real-time footage and signals concurrently. The wire’ s presence limits the depth and distance of the device’ s reach, as all signals grow weaker the further it travels. Fortunately, a group of MIT researchers had recently addressed the problem by designing a novel system that allows underwater transmitters and airborne sensors to directly share