Vityaz-D, the Russian UUV that reached the deepest point of Mariana Trench

There’s no doubt that underwater drones will undertake important tasks not only at battle scene but also while working on scientific discoveries. The deep submergence vehicle Vityaz-D, which explored the bottom of the Mariana Trench a month ago, performed its mission automatically according to a program the operator had installed in advance, the CEO of the Central Design Bureau of Marine Engineering Rubin, Igor Vilnit, told Russian TASS agency in an interview on 10th June.

“First, the operator keys in a task to perform a specific mission. After submersion the vehicle begins independent operation. The data it gathers is transmitted to the operator’s control board via a hydroacoustic channel,” Vilnit said.

The deep submersion drone Vityaz was the first-ever crewless vehicle to have reached the deepest point of the world ocean. It happened on May 8 at 22:34 Moscow time.

The superdeep submersion vehicle Vityaz-D is capable of exploring the world ocean’s bed at extreme depths. The system consists of the crewless vehicle proper, a bottom grab station and a control and command center.

Shipborne equipment maintains data exchange between the mother vessel and the bottom grab station via a hydroacoustic channel in the online mode. All components are of Russian manufacture.

The Vityaz-D vehicle’s artificial intelligence resource enables it to steer clear of obstacles and find a way out of confined spaces.