Working Underwater: The Story of the Commercial Diving Industry

world when it recovered a grapefruit-sized
vase from the sunken wreckage of the La
Lune, a vessel not seen by man in nearly
350 years. The flagship of France’s Louis XIV,
the warship went down in 328 feet of
water 20 miles south of the coastal city of
Toulon in 1664.
Though originally designed to explore
deep ocean reefs, with OceanOne’s artificial
intelligence abilities, the dive off the coast of
France made it clear that the underwater
robot and its successors are the future of
deep-sea commercial diving.
Oussama Khatib, a computer science
professor at Stanford University in Palo
Alto, California, piloted the humanoid robot
from a vessel on the surface. Using joysticks
to control the robot’s movement, he saw
everything through the robot’s two “eyes,”
a set of cameras in an orange head that
gives the device a distinctively human
appearance, at least from its “shoulders” up.
Even the robot’s two arms are reminiscent
of human appendages and they certainly are
in function.
Each hand has, as an article in Digital News
explained, force sensors “that transmit haptic
feedback to the robot’s pilot. Because of this,
the driver can feel exactly what OceanOne
feels, helping determine if it’s grabbing
something dense or delicate.”
A planned modification of the robot will
include tactile sensors in each finger.
“The human can provide the robot with
intuition, expertise and cognitive abilities,”
the professor told the Stanford News. “The
robot can do things in areas too dangerous for
a human, while the human is still there.”
In expanding on that, Khatib set forth
the obvious for anyone who knows anything
about commercial diving: In diving
beneath the surface, despite technological
advances, humans must still deal with air
supply issues and the dangers of decompression
sickness.
“The intent is to have a human diving
virtually—to put the human out of harm’s
way,” the professor said. “Having a machine
with human characteristics, that can project
the human diver at depth is going to be
amazing. OceanOne will be your avatar.”
In Khatib’s view, the future lies in a
combination of old-fashioned human skill
and a sturdy, man-like diving robot that can
work for longer and at great depths. Man will
still have a place in commercial and all other
aspects of diving, but he can accomplish
much of what needs to be done without ever
getting in the water.
“[Scientists] see a future where ROVs and
AUVs in their present form will cease
to exist and are replaced by transformative
e-robotics that can roam, hover, reside, and
perform all underwater tasks,” notes an article
in Ocean News & Technology Magazine
(February 2017).
Commercial divers in training preparing to
embark upon careers beneath the waves.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE.
THE HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL DIVING
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