The team, led by , a computer science professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science & Engineering, is working together with teams from McGill University and Dalhousie University to build the highly advanced AQUA robot, which resembles an otter and uses flippers to propel itself around underwater. Despite its cute, toy-like appearance, AQUA is intelligent enough to understand visual commands and perform complex under water manoeuvres.

Jenkin's team recently created an underwater control tablet that lets an operator interact with AQUA directly and much more quickly 鈥� a crucial feature when investigating dangerous, unknown environments like shipwrecks. 鈥淲e want to make vehicles that are more intelligent, that understand their world better and can interact with the world better. The underlying goal is to enhance our understanding of how to build intelligent, autonomous systems,鈥� Jenkin said.

Jenkin, a member of the , is one of the researchers based in 91亚色鈥檚 new state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which officially opened on Sept. 14. He leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics laboratory, which is based on the building鈥檚 main level.

The centre is supported by a grant from the . The AQUA project is funded in part by the .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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This marine robot is called , and its creators believe it will help researchers better explore and collect data in the planets' oceans.

Equipped with an array of sensors and cameras, the robot is designed for use in dangerous places where human divers would be at risk.

AQUA's greatest asset is its ability to interact with a human controller.

Jenkin believes his robot will open new vistas for deep-sea exploration. 鈥淒iving gets more dangerous the deeper you go. It gets more dangerous if you are in an overhead environment. So you can remain a reasonable distance from the robot and in reasonable safety and have the robot and have the robot do the more dangerous thing. And so that allows you to have the robot go into shipwrecks or explore partially collapsed environments instead of putting the operator at risk.鈥�

More details about the are available in the .

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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