[LUM#18] 2,000 Years Under the Sea
Because he loved the sea and robots, Vincent Creuze chose to pursue underwater robotics. Together with Arthur, he designed the world’s first robot dedicated to archaeology, capable of diving to a depth of 2,500 meters to bring 2,000 years of history back to the surface. A profile of a researcher based at LIRMM, navigating the intersection of innovation and archaeology.
It all takes place far, far away in the depths of the sea, where the wrecks of ships lost in ancient storms lie in utter darkness. A small, cube-shaped object hovers with the lightness of a butterfly over treasures hidden from the world’s view for two millennia. Arthur—that’s his name—is the first robot designed entirely for
archaeology. Capable of descending to a depth of 2,500 meters, he searches, maps, films, and collects samples…
In the Moonlight
To find its designer, let’s trace the cable connecting it to the Alfred Merlin, the vessel belonging to the Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research ( DRASSM). On deck, with only the moon illuminating the waves and dolphins and squid gliding silently around the boat, Vincent Creuze, a robotics researcher at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics
* (LIRMM*), is fine-tuning Arthur’s final settings. Everything will be ready when the archaeologists wake up this August 2022 to take part in the UNESCO expedition aimed at exploring ancient shipwrecks in the Strait of Sicily.
They’ve been working on this robot for nine years now with Olivier Templier, an engineer at Lirmm. Ever since DRASSM set them the crazy challenge of designing, within ten years, a robot capable of diving to a depth of 2,000 meters to investigate—with the delicacy of an archaeologist—the some 200,000 shipwrecks lying at the bottom of French territorial waters. “Together, we design everything—from the robot itself to the software and the circuit boards. Once out at sea, I have to be able to control everything and fix anything,” explains Vincent Creuze.
A Moment in Time
His first archaeological robot was created in 2014. Speedy, a machine measuring 75 cm by 40 cm, is equipped with a claw specially designed to grasp and retrieve samples. “When the archaeologists saw it, they were skeptical. They had imagined a larger robot with an articulated arm, but once they saw it in action, we won their trust.” Lightweight, easy to operate, fast, and delicate, this prototype was a success, but it was stolen from the port of Marseille a few weeks later. “I was devastated, ” recalls the researcher, “ but fortunately, I had managed to secure funding for a second prototype.”
More robots are on the way: Leonard, Flipper, Basile, and finally Arthur, his very own Nautilus. The first capable of diving not to 2,000 meters but to 2,500 meters, “and in 9 years instead of 10,” jokes the man whose work was recognized with the University of Montpellier’s Innovation Award. As he carries out one mission after another, eventually becoming a regular on the Alfred Merlin, the researcher marvels at the cargoes of amphorae, the finely chiseled glass vials, and even the stone columns intended for temples whose gods are still waiting to be worshipped. Vincent Creuze, however, isn’t waiting anymore—he’s savoring the moment: “Being at the helm of Arthur is like being at the bottom of the sea yourself; it’s a moment suspended in time, an incredible feeling.”
Listen to Vincent Creuze on the “La science s’aMuse” podcast from September 30, 2020
*Lirmm (UM, CNRS, Inria, UPVD, UPVM)
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