Underwater Vehicles
From Mars to the deep
Navigation technology that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land safely on Mars could guide robots in another unexplored terrain that’s much closer to home: the deepest trenches of the ocean.
Five extreme places to do ocean research
Whether they're under the ice at the furthest poles or hovering above the ocean's deepest…
Racing an undersea volcano
Using AUV Sentry to make a high-resolution, near-bottom, seafloor map before the next volcanic eruption…
The Rise of Orpheus
WHOI’s new deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicle moves one step closer to exploring the hadal zone—the…
Rapid Response at Sea
As sea ice continues to melt in the Arctic and oil exploration expands in the…
A new way of “seeing” offshore wind power cables
Eager to share best practices and technical know-how with the offshore wind sector, WHOI researchers…
Navigating the Changing Arctic
New, fully autonomous glider will collect critical-but-scarce ice thickness measurements from below the surface of…
Mesobot, Follow that Jellyfish!
WHO scientists and engineers are developing an innovative autonomous deep-sea vehicle with hovering and manuevering…
Coding Curiosity
The ocean is an extreme environment that is hard for humans to explore. One solution…
Sentry Completes Its 500th Dive
WHOI’s free-swimming robot Sentry completed its 500th dive on October 16, 2018, off the Pacific…
The Current that Feeds the Galápagos
A small fleet of robotic undersea vehicles paints the first detailed picture of a vast…
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea
My eyelids were tightly pressed down as I mustered all the tricks I could think…
The Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents
In 1977, WHOI scientists made a discovery that revolutionized our understanding of how and where…
To Track an Oil Spill
WHOI scientists are helping to develop a robotic underwater vehicle that can track oil spills…
Ocean Observatories Initiative
Sailors and scientists have gone to sea for centuries to unravel the inner workings of…
Aqua Incognita
There is a jar of money in the conference room of the Mooring Operations &…
Pinocchio’s Nose
It took only a month for the new Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) to reveal insights…
A Pioneering Vision
In 2005, scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution devised a revolutionary plan: They would deploy…
Pop Goes the Seafloor Rock
WHOI scientists used the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry to explore a surprising discovery: gas-filled…
Girls Just Wanna Be Engineers
“Very few women go into engineering,” said Anna Michel, “because girls just don’t get the…
The Hot Spot Below Yellowstone Park
WHOI scientist Rob Sohn brought an arsenal of deep-sea technology normally used to explore the…
PlankZooka & SUPR-REMUS
Much of marine life begins as microscopic larvae—so tiny, delicate, and scattered in hard-to-reach parts…
When the Hunter Became the Hunted
In waters off Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) engineers deployed the REMUS…