RMS Titanic, Inc. is sending two robots, known in industry speak as remote-operated submersibles (ROVs), down to the wreckage of the Titanic for some high-tech scans. The ROVs, which arrived at the wreckage coordinates earlier this week, will conduct the company’s first 3D scans and high-resolution images of the site in more than a decade.
The last time RMS Titanic scanned the sunken ship was in 2010. One of the main purposes of this trip is to compare the scans to those from 2010 to see how much the ship has deteriorated and “determine the impact of the oceans and other expeditions on the site.”
The images this time around should be of a higher quality too. Each ROV has “a custom-built structured array of high-resolution cameras and custom lighting” capable of capturing 65K imagery. Marine Imaging Technologies founder Evan Kovacs told Oceanographic they are “the highest resolution camera systems ever deployed at the site.”
