Man, you can't swing a data-obsessed scientist anymore without hitting a data-gathering robot of some kind.{mosimage}
A "robot" named Spray is "swimming" from Greenland to Spain, sending daily e-mail updates to its fleshen masters, who can adjust its course via the things GPS receiver. Ooh, a data-gathering robot with a GPS receiver. How creative.
Okay yeah, it's cool that this robot will be gathering data on salinity, temperature and other things to keep tabs on the ocean's climate, but it's a little creepy that the scientists in charge want to deploy a ton more by 2011 and call them robotic underwater sentinels.
Also, am I wrong in saying that it looks a lot more like a missile than a robot?
How hard would it have been, Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, if you're already going to the trouble of calling it a robot to give it googly eyes or a square, painted-on mouth?
All I'm saying is I wouldn't want to be reaching for the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and accidentally grab a torpedo. But what do I know?
Via Popular Science.
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