Establishment of Underwater Technology Research Center at the Institute of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo and its activities on AUV development

In hopes to expand underwater observation and research, the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) at the University of Tokyo started an extensive research and development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in 1984. Developed AW are the "R-One Robot" and two "Twin-Burgers" and so on. The R-One Robot is equipped with a closed cycle Diesel engine system and it successfully completed a twelve hour operation of long range autonomous diving in the Pacific Ocean in 1998. Utilizing the testbed robots, many intelligent systems, especially those for underwater vision systems have been developed. The success of these AUVs at the IIS has led to the establishment of the "Underwater Technology Research Center" which opened on April 1st, 1999. This new center also plans to collaborate both nationally and internationally with other facilities for further research for development of AUVs and other new underwater observation systems. This paper presents what the ITS did in the field of AUV technology and what the new research center is going to do.