The U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on a bunch of ocean technologies that allow navigation underwater without GPS, as well as a way to monitor what’s going on underwater.
In the latest episode of the “Voices from DARPA” podcast, John Waterston, a program manager in the agency’s Strategic Technology Office, talks about his experiences as both a US Navy submariner as well as a technology developer.
Waterston is developing technologies to better understand, monitor, and navigate the world’s oceans. One of his efforts includes developing a GPS-like system that can be used in the deep ocean.
Another program Waterston is working on involves what he calls the “Ocean of Things,” comprised of thousands of floating sensors to get “an unprecedentedly fine-grained understanding of what is happening in vast ocean environments.”
According to Waterston:
“It’s so immense, covering 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet even with all of the ships, all of the aircraft, all of the satellites, and all of the existing sensors, we are severely undersampling this environment.”
Check out the full episode here or on Blubrry, YouTube or iTunes.
