Creepy Humanoid Diving Robot can feel the grubby underwater muck just like us


As it turns out, you can’t make robots that aren’t creepy. From the soul-piercing glares of Ameca to the faceless gloom of Tesla Bot, humanoid robots will always be off-putting. Case in point: this new creepy humanoid diving robot. It looks horrifying!

What is the creepy humanoid diving robot?

Created by the scientists at Stanford University, the mechanical nightmare that is OceanOneK was created. Designed to explore ocean depths, the robotic diver is just like a human scuba, just terrifying to look at.

Via Futurism, the five-foot-tall diving bot technically looks like a human from afar. However, get closer and it quickly looks like a Thomas the Tank Engine model; you know, creepy face!

Despite its incredibly creepy design, the OceanOneK is a remarkable piece of kit. The fully remote-controlled robot has 3D vision, haptic feedback and the ability to actually feel objects it picks up.

The robot is said to offer an immersive diving experience. Stanford Robotics Lab director Oussama Khatib explained: “You are moving very close to this amazing structure, and something incredible happens when you touch it: You actually feel it.”

Furthermore, the robot’s on-board AI knows exactly how to handle any object it touches. Based on object feel, the pressure of grabs are altered to make die that objects don’t break. This means that old artefacts worn by the sea can be recovered more successfully.

It goes deep, robot deep

It also helps that the creepy humanoid diving robot can go incredibly deep. Without issue, the robot can plunge to depths of 3,280 feet. In human diving, a “deep dive” is 60 feet.

OceanOneK has been exploring the ocean depths for a number of years, but it’s only getting better. In its most recent adventure, the device excavated delicate artefacts from a Roman ship.

In the future, this diving tech could be used to explore the waters on other planets. However, that’s a long, long time away.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Robotics page.