Introducing Sirius, The Underwater Robot [Video]
One of the primary tools in the Antikythera shipwreck project so far has been Sirius, the underwater robot, or Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.
It has completed several missions over the Antikythera shipwreck, firstly conducting multi beam sonar runs, and then stereo photogrammetry passes, in order to stitch thousands of photos together and create a very high resolution map of the area.
Some missions have been in excess of two hours each, emphasizing one of the key benefits of using a robot is that humans aren't exposed to difficult conditions.
Sirius is being operated from the yacht GLAROS, generously provided by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation as a research vessel for the project.
The Antikythera Shipwreck (circa 60 B.C.) is the richest ancient wreck ever discovered. Greek sponge divers located the wreck by chance close inshore of Antikythera Island in 1900. They spent a year salvaging its treasures, with the help of the Hellenic Navy. The divers recovered hundred of works of art including the fabulous bronze and marble statues that now fill galleries at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The wreck also relinquished a mysterious clockwork device, the Antikythera Mechanism.
Follow the exciting return to Antikythera, a project of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports with support from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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Source: http://antikythera.whoi.edu/blog/, Photo Credit: John Fardoulis