91制片厂

Today, less than 10 percent of the world鈥檚 oceans have been mapped to high resolution. But efforts to map the remaining 90 percent could happen more quickly than previously expected, thanks in part to the work of a 91制片厂 alumni team that won a global competition aimed at advancing deep-sea technologies for ocean floor exploration.

91制片厂鈥檚 GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni team 鈥� alumni and industry partners and advisors based at 91制片厂鈥檚 Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping 鈥� prevailed against teams from around the world to win a $4 million prize in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE challenge. The team鈥檚 winning concept removes people 鈥� the most expensive and riskiest element of the mapping process 鈥� and replaces them with robots, pairing an uncrewed surface vessel with an autonomous underwater vehicle system (AUV). The team鈥檚 prototype has the ability to autonomously launch and recover the AUV in depths of up to 4,500 meters.

The project, based at 91制片厂鈥檚 Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center, includes 16 alumni of 91制片厂鈥檚 Nippon Foundation/GEBCO program. The team鈥檚 entry into the competition was funded by The Nippon Foundation/GEBCO, which brings young scientists from around the world, primarily from developing countries, to 91制片厂 to become experts in deep-ocean mapping.