Founders Eric Stackpole and David Lang of Open ROV, a California company that specializes in the design and manufacture of underwater drones, first started with the idea of using drones for ocean exploration through a robbery tale they've read in a 1970's magazine.
"There was this story that there was a robbery and gold was thrown to the bottom of this underwater cave and all of these treasure hunters and scuba divers, no one was able to get to the bottom, so Eric had this big idea that he was going to build this underwater robot to go explore," said Lang.
The company developed several prototypes for the underwater drones and after four years, they are now on the last phase of the project.
The drone prototype is called Trident, a waterproof smart phone that can go as deep as 100 meters (328 ft.) underwater. Trident sends a video signal, including temperature, depth, and direction in a real time manner via a tether connected to a buoy. Since the buoy is connected to the internet, this allows the drone to be controlled even from far distances.
To further enhance one's underwater experience, the team also developed a virtual reality headset. According to Lang, although this project is a breakthrough in science, the total cost is much cheaper compared to an actual underwater expedition.
"Ocean science and exploration is really tragically underfunded and there are all sorts of people that are stuck in this post-docalypse who are trying to get the research done with very limited budgets and so this tool has become great for them," Lang added in a report by Huffington Post. He also said that Trident is more cost effective compared to a regular ROV with the same functionality.
Although Trident can give insights on how the underwater ecosystem exists, it is evident that in the end, it will all depend on how we take care of what's left according to Lang.
"The most important thing and the first thing is that we have to get people to care and I think the way to do that is to allow them to engage. It is to give them the tools to actually explore themselves and to feel some sense of ownership in the process," he added.
To date, the company already raised approximately $740,000 USD in the final phase of its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
