Making Machines Curious

Remote and autonomous vehicles are now helping us make discoveries in places where humans cannot easily go. A recent mission to explore marine life at the bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico, over 5,000 meters below the surface at its deepest point, discovered over 30 potential new species.

These uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) are running missions that allow humans to make better decisions (the Clarion-Clipperton survey was conducted to assess the impact of seabed mining). They're also mapping the unknown deep sea, following a trajectory and mission instructions designed before the dive, then “flying” just a few meters off the seafloor for hours while relaying data to a ship above them. These are just two examples; vehicles can be programmed to find old sea mines buried in the ocean floor, inspect pipelines for leaks, or search for lost shipping containers.