CMU Drops Robot into Mexican Sinkhole

Posted 24 Jan 2007 at 20:38 UTC by steve

Roland Piquepaille writes, "This spring, an underwater robot named Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) will start to explore the depths of the Zacaton Cenote in central Mexico, which is over 1,000 feet deep (more than 300 meters). According to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the robot will navigate through this sinkhole by using software called simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM. The goal is to discover what kinds of organisms are still living in the deepest flooded sink hole in the world. If the experiment is a success, this robot will be reconditioned and reprogrammed to explore the Solar system to discover other possible living organisms." For more on the DEPTHX underwater cave exploring robot see Roland's blog.