What kind of instruments do the robots have and what can they measure? You just put some electronics onto that and wham-o, you have an autonomous boat. Therefore, we are making them as low cost as possible-hundreds of dollars.īP: In this case we used some used PVC sewer pipe that was found in the village. Also, these robots are considered disposable. So you have to design robots that fit into carry-on luggage on a Twin Otter plane. MD: Kavachi is in a remote part of the Solomon Islands with very limited travel options. Sharks Discovered Inside Underwater Volcano (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) How did you design the robots? So, to start increasing our knowledge of these environments you have to develop low-cost monitoring tools that are capable of undertaking meaningful measurements but are not so costly you can’t afford to lose them. This all addresses an interesting problem with monitoring in extreme environments, in that no matter how well-built your systems are or how much they cost, it is very unlikely they will survive an explosion. Matthew Dunbabin: After looking at a friend’s amazing video of Kavachi’s past eruptions, hearing about the remoteness of the site, and how challenging the conditions are, we were determined to try to get there. If you can do this at this one volcano, you can do it at every volcano. But also, as a scientist, it's about getting that last data point, right before the eruption-pH, carbon dioxide, temperature fluctuations, acidity. We talked to Phillips and Dunbabin about their return to “Sharkcano.” Why send robots into one of the most active submarine volcanoes on Earth?īrenna Phillips: Cause it's cool. Phillips reunited with his 2015 expedition mates-Alistair Grinham of University of Queensland and Matthew Dunbabin of Queensland University of Technology and Director of GFB Robotics-to once again venture about 20 miles off the coast of the Solomon Islands to the Pacific Ocean’s violent Kavachi volcano. “Our goal is to send instrumentation there to get meaningful data, but sometimes it’s really fun to just blow stuff up,” says National Geographic explorer and ocean engineer Brennan Phillips.

Not surprisingly, the team was eager to go back and learn more, but how do you explore an environment that could easily kill you? You send in robots, of course. “Sharkcano.” It’s not the title of some campy summer blockbuster, but rather a real-world phenomenon that went viral in 2015, when scientists on a National Geographic expedition found sharks living inside one of the most active underwater volcanoes on Earth.

Island volcano cave submarine cartoon