The Deep Unknown

The TED Talk “My Underwater Robot” by David Lang talks about deep-sea exploration with ROVs, remote operated vehicles. David Lang began his business in underwater robotics because of his curiosity of the unknown. He has created ROVs with inexpensive parts, but the ROVs can still produce live, clear video. He has not secluded the design for a profit but has freely posted all of his codes and parts online for others to give feedback on and improve his designs. David Lang is a prime example of someone who doesn’t care about money or fame, but wants to further the human understanding of the unknown. He is spreading the ideas of deep-sea exploration using ROVs and is gathering a following all around the world containing curious explorers who collectively want to improve the future and understanding of our world. He created a Kickstarter to raise money for shipping kits explaining how to make ROVs. David Lang has received many videos and photos from people sending images seen by the ROVs. ROVs are becoming more common in exploration to search and retrieve samples from extreme places in which humans could not survive. If people work together as a scientific community and not for personal profit, we could fully understand our world and all of its surfaces and minerals in a matter of years. ROVs act as an extension to the human eye by seeing and recording sights and phenomena we could not possibly see. Hopefully ROVs will soon be cheaply created to explore the outer reaches of our solar system and, eventually, our galaxy.