SECT. 5] DEEP SUBMERSIBLES FOR OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 513 



— a hand that opens and closes, a wrist that rotates in any direction, an elbow 

 that pivots, and a shoulder that both pivots and rotates. The arm is at the end 

 of a hydraulically actuated boom, mounted at the aft center of the tank. It 

 can reach out to 15 ft and perform jobs requiring skill and dexterity. The boom 

 provides three additional motions — boom rotation, boom pivot and boom flex. 

 The boom also has a hook for lifting objects weighing up to 5000 lb, depending, 

 of course, on the angle. 



In early 1960, the first shallow tests with RUM were conducted in San Diego 

 Bay and also through the breaker zone at La Jolla, California. As expected, the 

 preliminary tests with this prototype were not completely successful but much 

 useful information was gained. The construction of a lighter model built of 

 aluminum alloys is presently contemplated ; this will reduce RUM's tendency 

 to bog down in a soft bottom. Also, a helicopter type of rotor is planned which 

 will give RUM a swimming as well as a crawling capability. This will also 

 permit its operation directly from an oceanographic mother ship as well as 

 from shore. 



Robot vehicles, such as RUM, will doubtlessly play an important role in 

 future oceanography. As a supplement to manned vehicles, they prove in- 

 valuable, since they might conceivably perform any heavy or unusually 

 dangerous deep-sea work. Whether or not robots will seriously compete with 

 or replace manned bathynauts is a moot question. With the advent of more 

 sophisticated automated techniques, this is a problem of the not-too-distant 

 future. 



8. Concluding Remarks 



To be useful to the oceanographer, deep-diving craft, both in mid-water and 

 especially along the bottom, will have to remain small and maneuverable. The 

 ability to move slowly and to hover is more important than speed ; even in the 

 crystal-clear bottom water, visibility cannot be extended for more than 150 ft. 

 To obtain information on obstructions farther out, scanner sonars are needed. 

 To carry out their oceanographic missions, the crafts will have to be equipped 

 with portholes, closed-circuit TV, prehensile arms, lifting hooks, a wet winch, 

 sonar sensors and numerous other devices. Animals of the deep are mostly 

 minute ; seeing them properly will necessitate careful attention to lighting and 

 the external optical systems. 



With modern metallurgy it is apparently feasible to construct buoyant 

 stiffened or reinforced cylindrical hulls capable of operating at abyssal depths, 

 even though the spherical cabin may remain the best solution for penetrating 

 to hadal trench depths. A reinforced steel cylinder, still light enough to remain 

 buoyant, can be built to operate at 3000 m with the usual submarine safety 

 factor of 1.5. The Aluminaut studies have apparently shown that the light 

 aluminum alloys are even more favorable ; they permit the construction of a 

 stiffened cylindrical hull for operating at 4600 m. The strong light metal 

 titanium offers attractive possibilities. A titanium-hulled craft could operate 



