How does the French robot Victor 6000 that was sent to find Titan work?

Hope is in his hands. From eight o’clock in the evening on Wednesday, June 21, France will be at the scene of the disappearance of the submarine Titan, which disappeared on Sunday while on its way to visit the wreck of the Titanic, several hundred kilometers from the American coast. At the site, France will be represented by Atalante, an Ifremer vessel in service since the 1990s. And on board, the “submarine main entry vehicle”, Vector 6000The Minister of the Sea announced, on Tuesday, Hervé Bierville.

The robot, which is controlled remotely from the ship, can descend into the ocean depths and can reach 6,000 meters. Capabilities that will be more than enough around the wreck of the Titanic. In fact, the legendary ship has been idling since April 1912 at a depth of 3,800 metres.

robot Connected to the ship at all times thanks to an eight-kilometer umbilical cord. It is packed with a series of monitoring equipment and is able to manipulate and sample sediment or fauna on the ocean floor thanks to an articulated arm. In all, nine people are needed to operate. position [de commande] With 14 screens that bring together two worlds, the pilot, who uses the joystick, and the coordinator “, also defines Ifremer. According to Ifremer, the Victor 6000 will offer, at the beginning of June 2023, more than 15,000 diving hours to his credit.

A race against time

Typically, the Vector 6000 is packed on “scientific oceanography” missions. “The high-resolution photo and video imaging system ensures perfect perception of the environment,” Ifremer specifies. A very important capacity while the Titan submarine has been missing since Sunday. In addition, the French robot is able to reconstruct all of its observations in 3D. Another very useful ability for packaged relief instantly.

“The device will continue to be coordinated with the NATO coordination center and we are in contact with the US authorities,” Hervé Bierville said on Tuesday, adding that the botnet operators had left Toulon.

According to estimates by the US Coast Guard, the passengers of the Titan submarine have enough oxygen until Thursday at midday. As a result, even if the Victor 3000 had an autonomy of up to 72 hours, its operators would have to act (very) quickly in order to still have a chance of finding the submarine’s surviving occupants. And for good reason, Titan has been closed off from the outside. design Any opening even to an acceptable depth is prohibited to the human body or in the case of rising to the surface.

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