Archaeologists are using a special remote-controlled undersea robot called Hercules to help them investigate an 1,500-year-old shipwreck buried in mud at the bottom of the Black Sea:
The drone is the first craft ever designed specifically for deep-water archaeology, Ballard said. It’s controlled by a pilot in the Knorr, Ballard’s ship on the surface. But by using special pressure-sensitive mandibles, Hercules’ human operator aboard the Knorr can actually feel what the robot is grasping thousands of feet below. Ballard has long relied on remote-piloted crafts to assist him in his expeditions. For years, most of his explorations have been conducted without a human ever traveling to the wreck. But the capabilities of the drones are limited. “Before, all we could do is find, we couldn’t excavate,” Ballard said. “With a ship (like Wreck D), archaeologists would say, ‘Don’t you touch that, you clumsy oaf.'” Hercules’ mandibles provide the necessary sensitivity to work with such a delicate find. The robot also comes equipped with special sonar that will give scientists an ultrasound picture of what it’s facing down below. That’s crucial, because at great depths the sea is nearly impenetrable to the human eye.
