Blog Post Image: SOI Collaborating With WHOI On Construction of World’s Most Advanced Deep-diving Robotic Vehicle

HROV Nereus from the water during its second expedition in 2009 to investigate hydrothermal vents along Earth’s deepest mid-ocean ridge in the Cayman Trough. On May 31, 2009, the robotic vehicle successfully reached the deepest part of the world’s ocean—the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. The one-of-a-kind vehicle can operate either as an autonomous, free-swimming robot for wide-area surveys, or as a tethered vehicle for close-up investigation and sampling of seafloor rocks and organisms. (Photo courtesy Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)