XPRIZE selects winners of autonomous seafloor-mapping competition

Sponsored by Shell with a bonus prize from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the competition focused on the challenge of exploring the seafloor and saw 32 teams from around the world competing for $7 million.The primary goal was to build an autonomous, high-resolution seafloor-mapping system that could be launched from a similarly uncrewed boat. Their design used as many currently available components as possible, including a floating platform called a "SEA-KIT" with a conveyer-belt-like system for dumping the drone in the water and hoisting it back out when it returns.The second-place prize of $1 million went to the Japanese team "Kuroshio," composed of researchers and industry professionals led by Takeshi Nakatani. The project was launched in 2017 and already has the backing of a range of organizations including the United Nations and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) program that leads the University of New Hampshire training program responsible for the winning XPRIZE team.You must login or create an account to comment.Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox.