Researchers from the Institute of Engineering, Technology and Science of Systems and Computing (INESC TEC), in Porto, reached a depth of 450 meters in the deepest natural cave in the world, in the Czech Republic, breaking the world record, announced this Tuesday.
This team of researchers managed, for the first time, to take an autonomous underwater vehicle to 450 meters — the UX-1Neo – from the “Hranice Abyss” cave, the institute said in a statement.
“The UX-1Neo is one of the most technologically advanced underwater robots in the world and it was developed by INESC TEC, within the framework of the UNEXUP project”, he stressed.
The previous record had been reached in 2016, using a remote-controlled underwater robot, which reached 404 meters in an expedition of the National Geographiche is stressed.
After years of research and numerous exploration missions in the “Abyss of Hranice”, researchers Alfredo Martins, Carlos Almeida, Eduardo Soares, Pedro André Peixoto and Ricardo Pereira formed, at the beginning of August, an expedition to explore the flooded natural cave of the world. , make your 3D map and collect water parameter data.
Alfredo Martins, who is also a professor at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), said that “the cave, it is believed to be more than 900 meters deepit has been explored with divers up to 200 meters”.
The most recent mission was carried out within the framework of the UNEXUP project and, for the first time, it was possible to “successfully explore the cave up to 450 meters and obtain a detailed map, something that was not possible before,” he said.
As an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) it carries out exploration missions fully autonomously and with precise positioning, unique characteristics that can be used depending on the mission or its risk, he explained.
Specifically, the robot combines information from a multibeam sonar, with two rotary scanning sonarssix cameras and six three-dimensional structured light reconstruction systems, which allow the construction, in detail, of a 3D map, he said.
Thanks to this technology, the robot managed to map “in two days of diving, what has been done in the last 50 years“said one of the divers who accompanied the expedition, quoted in the statement.
According to Alfredo Martins, the existing maps of the cave were built, over the years, based on measurements made by divers up to 180 meters, on reports from a diver who descended to 217 meters and on two acoustic probes that were dropped. with a wire. up to 384 meters.
The exploration mission was organized by the Czech Speleological Association and included the participation of the UNEXUP project consortium.
“This project aims to implement a new mine mapping service, based on a new class of autonomous underwater robots capable of exploring up to a thousand meters deepobtaining relevant information such as its structural state and map (allowing to know if there were landslides or other problems) and important geological information to determine the existence of mineral resources of economic interest, which would otherwise be more difficult and dangerous to exploit. obtain or would have higher costs,” the institute reported.
UNEXUP is funded by the EIT Raw Materials around 2.9 million euros and ends in December 2022.
Source: Observadora
