Korea to invest W20b in undersea robots

Korea to invest W20b in undersea robots

The government will invest 20 billion won ($18 million) into developing robots for marine exploration until 2015, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said yesterday.

The deep sea robot will have advanced sonar equipment and multi-jointed legs. It will be capable of walking at up to 50 centimeters per second and swimming at 30 centimeters per second.

The announcement came after a recent troubled search of a sunken naval ship and its missing crew.

The project will be conducted in two stages until 2015, and the organization that will carry out the project will be selected during May, the ministry said.

In the first stage, scheduled to be conducted from this year until 2012, 9 billion won will be injected into developing a robot capable of operating at depths of up to 200 meters, the ministry said.

The robot developed in the first stage of the project will move by means of multi-jointed legs on the seabed to overcome the fast tidal currents prevalent in Korea’s coastal waters, the ministry said.

It will also be fitted with advanced sonar equipment to allow it to operate in murky waters.

The ministry said that the robot developed for shallow sea operations is scheduled to be deployed in a range of activities such as monitoring underwater environmental conditions, exploring and salvaging sunken ships, in 2013.

The second stage of the project, which will take place from 2013 to 2015, will see an investment of 11 billion won for developing robots for operating at depths of up to 6,000 meters.

Once complete, the deep sea robot will be used to explore underwater volcanoes, undersea hydrothermal vents and other underwater features that are difficult to explore with existing equipment, the ministry said.

According to the ministry’s projections, the local market for such robots between 2016 and 2020 will grow to be worth 150 billion won including maintenance and operation.