The ruins of the French ship La Lune have been explored for the first time since the craft sank off the coast of southern France in 1664. But the explorer wasn’t human! A bright-orange human-shaped robot named OceanOne investigated the sunken ship.
Oussama Khatib, the robot’s creator, piloted OceanOne from a boat on the surface. He controlled the bot’s movements using a set of joysticks. A camera on the bot allowed Khatib to see what the robotic diver saw. OceanOne even picked up a centuries-old vase and brought it to the surface! Khatib hopes that in the future the swimming robot will be able to take on tasks too dangerous for humans.