Where there is a will, there is a way. Since time immemorial, there has always been pirates as humans traversed the seven seas, not to mention smugglers who try to bring contraband material from one part of the world to another, and this game of cat and mouse continues to be played out until today. Well, there has been technology developed for the authorities to be able to detect smuggled goods in ships, and one of the most recent advances would include this particular robot that is the size of a football which will skim discreetly along a ship’s hull, as it looks out for hollow compartments that could be used as a place to hide contraband.
MIT researchers revealed this oval-shaped submersible robot just last week, where it sports a flattened panel on one side and yet it is capable of sliding alongside an underwater surface so that it will be able to perform ultrasound scans.
That was not the original intention or purpose of its design though, as it is meant to check out the presence of cracks in nuclear reactors’ water tanks, allowing it to subsequently inspect ships when it comes to having false hulls, as well as checking out propeller shafts which smugglers tend to use to hide contraband. Imagine these tiny robots doing all the inspection work – and if one of them cost less than a $1,000, it would be far more cost effective in the long run – and smugglers would have to figure out of other creative access methods in their line of work.
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