With the global circumstances being unpredictable and the war on claiming rights on depleting resources, it is incumbent for countries to develop a strong military sector so they may be able to protect themselves. This is the reason why countries are focusing on this area and investing tremendously in making their defense systems stronger than ever.
Recently, the navy of the United Kingdom has brought an innovative concept in maritime surveillance and reconnaissance. This means that the country is prepared to combat attacks from the sea as well. The Royal Navy is in the process of testing a robotic boat that will gauge the situation underwater and report any danger.
The boat is called the Otto Pro and it was tested on Horsea Lake at the Defence Diving School, Portsmouth. This project was run by the Navy’s Project Hecla team. It used a myriad of sensors to entirely inspect the bottom of the lake.
The Royal Navy takes pride in knowing that they have a remarkable marking of water maps all around the world. They rarely change. So, the country has an edge over other counties in this regard. However, it is also a hassle to change and update them as the changes occur. Most of these changes occur due to the changes in the sea by nature through erosion, currents, earthquakes, and erosion. There are some manmade factors as well like ships sinking, construction, and dumping.
This ongoing change means constant labor of keeping track of these transformations and marking them. Hence, the navy is turning to robots for this task. This Otter Pro was constructed by RS Aqua Ltd and was sent to the lake to acquire the sonar image of the water and the information about the bottom of the lake and its objects. This turned out to be successful and went on for about two hours.
Now, it will be used to carry further tests. Real-time data processing will be used. This will test the machine’s Norbit multi-beam echo sounder and other sonar devices.