Hi explorers! This is Ziev, Reach the World’s Endurance22 Program Associate. Last weekend, I attended an amazing marine robotics competition in Massachusetts known as the MATE II ROV New England Regionals. Let’s check it out!
This competition had middle school and high school marine robotics teams. The students have spent months building autonomous and remotely-operated vehicles (AUVs and ROVs) and programming them to complete tasks that simulate real-world things that underwater robots do. This year’s challenges were related to renewable energy, offshore aquaculture (growing things underwater) and exploring Antarctica. In the Antarctica-related challenge, the teams had to use their robots to survey a scaled-down replica of Shackleton’s Endurance! And just like the real Endurance22 Expedition, they had to do so without touching the ship.
Younger students were allowed to look at the pool while completing their challenges, while the more advanced teams’ pilots were not allowed to look at the pool. They sat at tables with their backs to the water and relied solely on built-in cameras to see what their ROVs were doing. This is almost exactly how professionals use ROVs to explore the oceans.
