"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message

This is the free-swimming robot submarine that found AF 447 in the
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge:
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=38144
http://boingboing.net/2011/05/06/air...447-how-s.html
"On April 3, researchers spotted the plane's debris field, 13,000
feet down, smack in the middle of a massive underwater mountain
range."

jsw

To give you an idea of the state of the art,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider
"In November 2012, a Liquid Robotics Wave Glider autonomous underwater
glider set a Guinness World Record for "longest distance traveled on
the Earth's surface by a robot" by travelling over 14,000 kilometres
(9,000 mi) on an autonomous journey of just over one year duration."

"In August 2010, a Deep Glider variant of the Seaglider achieved a
repeated 6000-meter operating depth."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberda...rwater_gliders
"... and remain on station for up to six months."

jsw