I was thinking about the next killer app for a robot we all could work on. We identified the rhoomba as a success because it is solving a problem. I would argue that drones are in that same category. They give people a VR experience of flying that they do not have. Unfortunately they have been done to death and the market is oversaturated. What else is impossible for humans to see firsthand besides flight. How about swimming in the ocean for hours at a time. Flying a drone you could see a bird every other day but undersea you could see tremendous wild life. Can you imagine someone in Kansas discovering a new lifeform in the deeps via VR Exosphere now seems set up for that and there are many tremendous technical questions. Not sure if wifi would really work underwater but there are awesome smart people here.
My concept in a nutshell would be a small underwater drone that a person could toss into the water with return capabilities. They could wear a VR headset such that the would see exactly what the drone see's in real life. It would be 3D printed and different more expensive models to accommodate different depths. Maybe manipulators would be cool.
It would be the ultimate immersive environment tied with the fact that someone could sit at a shore or anywhere in the world and perform real science. You could do anything underwater from exchanging wedding rings to discovering a gallion at the bottom of a bay loaded with gold.
People would like it;
Other robots from Synthiam community
DJ's Mobile App Developer Tutorial
Putt's Shorty
I like that idea! And given we live in canada (well, except for the prairies) there's a lot of water around to use it in. I have a cabin that i spend my summers at, and there's a bunch of ship wrecks and abandoned mines (i.e. silver islet). It would be truly amazing to experience it the way you described.
Any radio frequency would be out of the question, unfortunately. Water makes the best Ferriday cage there is! Also why sonar is the usual solution, but the bandwidth is miserable. Because this could be something that would be expensive and impossible to find if it broke or filled with water (eak).... a wired solution would be great. Through a low cost cat5 ethernet cable, the water drone could be powered and signal (video & ezb control). Also, great if you need to yank it back up!
We're currently powering the exosphere playground robots with a telephone cable. Yup, a plain jane telephone cable! The reason we choose that is it has a pivot to spin and also coiled to prevent from getting tangled on anything. In the water, the coil would cause havoc... so a straight wire that is on a retractable spool would be ideal.
Actually, now that i think about it... a regular telephone cable would probably be better than an ethernet cable. Also, it's a lot cheaper in super long lengths. I bought 500 ft of telephone cable for my outdoor speakers at my cabin for only a few bucks on amazon. It was way cheaper than speaker wire :D
This whole thing could be 3d printed as well... long as we designed the size to accept gaskets/seals that are readily available. Maybe stuff you can get at canadian tire or even home depot. We'll have to plan the design and start discussing how to make it water tight.
I found this on amazon... hmm it says WiFi ... so disregard my previous comment about that. Looks like it might be possible with WiFi
https://www.amazon.ca/CHASING-Dory-Underwater-Drone-Palm-Sized/dp/B085DKWFCS/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3XL3UWRTK1X9&dchild=1&keywords=remote+control+submarine+with+camera&qid=1606548745&sprefix=remote+control+submarine+with%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-2
Okay ... apologies for the spam but it isn't wifi under the water. It has a buoy that floats and is the wifi access point. So it would be like having an EZB above the water.
One possible business model is that there is a store in the carribean with 500-1000 of them. Thy would put them in the water and people from all over could drive them in a full VR immersion experience. around the local reefs or down to know shipwrecks.
Not sure a tether would be a show stopper but deffinetaly a 'non-feature'. Maybe a SBC with onboard smarts and some AI run it in-between docking to a solar powered tethered bouy
The idea sounds great but whilst underwater any sort of cable/tether would cause snagging problems. Not trying to be negative but unless the unit was inexpensive you would need a diver available for rescue operations. This could work with the scenario of many units deployed locally and people logging in remotely at a cost or under a grant/charity to cover rescue and operational costs.
The buoy and tethered sub model was the first thing to come to my mind but in reality if you are only accessing this remotely than does it even need to be real. CGI has come a long way and you could spend some time filming coral reefs etc and then converting these to 3D models. Add some virtual fish and dolphins and scatter some 3D model ship wrecks around.
I kind of think this is how a lot of us will get to tour the world in future. Nothing more than a Head Mounted Display and a 3D model of the planet. Don’t forget the sun lamps and you can have the perfect virtual vacation.
Perhaps this method and Exosphere is how the data is gathered for the VR computer generated experience. Beyond that there is no substitute for driving a fast darting drone while a 1000 lb grouper crushes it in it's mouth an spits it out. Nature is unpredictable, VR playing programmed computer graphics are not.
Vr is fun but it’s still soulless :). I have two vive rigs setup at home and spend once or twice a week in there. It’s stale, but does keep me entertained
when I picture taking my seadoos out to various water landmarks, and dropping a drone in to explore the bottom... that’s cool. Using the phone with google cardboard (but not a cardboard headset, a cheap Amazon plastic one). The computer won’t need to be super powerful in the buoy. It’ll be awesome