The University of Washington this fall will complete installation of a massive digital ocean observatory. Dozens of instruments will connect to power and Internet cables on the seafloor, but the observatory also includes a new generation of ocean explorers: robots that will zoom up and down through almost two miles of ocean to monitor the water conditions and marine life above.

Tests are underway for two types of tethered robot, one working at shallow depths and one in the dark depths, that will gather continuous, real-time data about the ocean environment. The robots are part of the UW-led cabled observatory, funded by a $239 million grant from the National Science Foundation and part of the national Ocean Observatories Initiative.

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