Panaji:The Goa-based CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has launched an autonomous underwater vehicle called C-bot, a robot with advanced features for increased surveillance over the coral reefs. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General Dr N Kalaiselvi launched the C-bot on Sunday and said the vehicle can travel to a depth of 200 metres underwater.
This robot is the first step to building a capable underwater vehicle that can scan the depth of the Indian Ocean, she told reporters on the CSIR-NIO campus on Monday. Kalaiselvi said they plan to develop this vehicle further which will be able to travel thousands of metres in the sea.
CSIR-NIO Director Sunil Kumar Singh said the C-bot will help in maintaining surveillance over the coral reefs in the ocean. He said that coral bleaching is taking place because of the climate change. "With different sensors, different cameras, the robot measures what the parameters are, and might help explain why the corals are dying the way they are," he said.