A RETURN TO OUR DESTINY

There is a news article in this issue of BIP that is important to stress – great storms announce themselves with a gentle breeze.

In a few years, we will want to identify the source, and give the event a date. We suggest that that date is the day the TURTLE entered INESC TEC’s Robotics Lab for the first tests.

Let us remember: the TURTLE is a visionary project. The goal: building the first autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for the deep sea in Portugal using Portuguese science and engineering. Certainly this was made possible by the hand (or creative genius) of INESC TEC’s researchers, and also by the constructive work of the company A. Silva Matos, known  internationally for their mechanical engineering (with the collaboration of Ply Engineering, UK). After all, an underwater robot depends on a structure that protects its intelligence.

The next stage is the trials at sea, with the Portuguese Navy and CINAV (the Naval Research Centre) – this is the first Portuguese vehicle preparing for a visit to the deep waters of the Atlantic. We are talking about over a thousand metres, and after that we will go for three thousand metres with the following versions. But this is not tourism: the TURTLE was approved by the EDA (European Defence Agency) and it is a dual project, as it serves both civil and military objectives. Civil, because this platform is capable of carrying various sensors - acoustic, optical, geomagnetic, and biological sensors; military, because the vehicle can remain at sea for several weeks, using sonar to take a peek at lurking intruders on our waters.

We will follow the progress of the trials at sea with great excitement – this is Portugal’s return to its destiny, the Portuguese Atlantis, that immense four million square kilometre territory that we must explore and deliver to the coming generations.

Photo credits: Science Daily