Vertical glider robots for subsea equipment delivery

We have developed an underwater vehicle that offers significant performance improvements over existing sub sea elevators. Our Vertical Glider Robot falls under its own weight to a precise location on the seafloor, employing streamlining, active steering, and basic navigation instrumentation. We examine typical at-sea mission requirements, mention several key governing parameters, and outline our design approach. We then describe a prototype device, and present results from model-scale experiments.