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The Hyper Dolphin is a remotely operated vehicle capable of performing surveys at a maximum operating depth of 3,000 m. On-board control of the robot is provided by a cable of at least 3,000 m that supplies power and bidirectional optical communication. The operating crew consists of a vehicle pilot and a manipulator pilot. The Hyper Dolphin is equipped with an ultrahigh-sensitive super-HARP HDTV camera that makes it possible to obtain clear-cut images of the deep seas and to transmit photographs of deep-sea organisms for use by all types of media.
In 2006, the Hyper Dolphin and the Shinkai 6500 made a successful joint dive, the results of which were aired on NHK's Planet Earth TV program. Recently, the Hyper Dolphin has been used as an unmanned exploration vehicle in which many kinds of observation equipment have been installed and for heavy-duty work such as the extension of submarine cables used in an earthquake and tsunami network.
Nippon Marine Enterprises was commissioned to operate and maintain the Hyper Dolphin in 2000. Recently, an increasing number of devices have been installed for survey and observation purposes, and in this sense, the Hyper Dolphin embodies the trial and error efforts of the pilot themselves.
| Use: |
Deep-sea surveying and research in remotely operated unmanned dives |
| Length: |
3.0 m |
| Breadth: |
2.0 m |
| Height: |
2.3 m |
| Weight in air: |
Approximately 3.8 tons |
| Maximum operating depth: |
3,000 m |
| Speeds: |
3.0 knots forward, 2.0 knots in reverse, 2.0 knots laterally, and 2.0 knots vertically |
| Reserch and observation equipment: |
- Ultrahigh-sensitive super-HARP HDTV camera × 1
- 3CCD color TV camera × 1
- Monochrome TV camera for monitoring × 1
- Digital still camera × 1
- HMI light × 5
- CTD/DO × 1
- Obstacle avoidance sonar × 1
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| Working equipment: |
7-axis manipulator with two master-slave devices × 1 |
Click here to see a photo gallery of the remotely operated vehicle Hyper Dolphin. |
