Nissan AVM tech to go underwater for deep sea exploration

The joint development contract with JAMSTEC and Topy, a manufacturers of robot crawlers in Japan, aims to enhance the government agency’s ability to search deep underwater for natural resources using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Nissan’s AVM technology will help ROV operators avoid obstacles and navigate the ocean seafloor more easily. First commercialized in 2007, AVM provides a virtual 360-degree overview of a car from a bird’s-eye view as pictured from above. The technology helps drivers visually confirm the vehicle’s position relative to parking spaces and adjacent objects and maneuver into parking spots more easily. Under the Japanese government’s SIP initiative, JAMSTEC, Japan’s agency that develops next-generation technologies to explore for resources deep under the sea, and Topy Industries, one of the top manufacturers of robot crawlers in Japan, have teamed up to develop a highly-efficient operating system for undersea searches using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The ROVs being tested by JAMSTEC and Topy include a version of Nissan AVM which features three-dimensional picture processing capability.