Figure 1. The autonomous benthic explorer (ABE) a free-swimming robot. In this image, ABE is about to be set loose to explore the bottom of the SW Indian Ocean from aboard the Chinese research ship Da Yang Yi Hao in 2007. Over the past five years, ABE has been used on multiple expeditions to find new hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean all over the world, from New Zealand to South Africa and Brazil to Ecuador.
ABE
Image courtesy of Christopher German. Download image (jpg, 87 KB).

Figure 1. The autonomous benthic explorer (ABE) a free-swimming robot. In this image, ABE is about to be set loose to explore the bottom of the SW Indian Ocean from aboard the Chinese research ship Da Yang Yi Hao in 2007. Over the past five years, ABE has been used on multiple expeditions to find new hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean all over the world, from New Zealand to South Africa and Brazil to Ecuador.

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