Sampriti From Kolkata Invented an Underwater Drone to Map Oceans

A Kolkata girl, Sampriti Bhattacharyya, pitched the idea of an underwater drone, Hydroswarm.

Sampriti Bhattacharyya, a PhD holder from MIT, pitched the idea of an underwater drone, Hydroswarm. (Photo courtesy: Hydroswarm’s Twitter page)

Feel that Elon Musk is the only human exploring the unknown spaces of the universe? Did you know that the earth consists of 70% ocean and yet, famously, we know more about the moon than about our oceans. Only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored despite the fact that 95% of the world’s life, energy and resources lies in the sea.

Sampriti Bhattacharyya, Kolkata girl who received her PhD from MIT, pitched the idea of an underwater drone, Hydroswarm.

Hydroswarm is an adaptable, smart drone platform for underwater exploration. The platform works with an autonomous drone which lives underwater, dubbed Eve, which can work with multiple other Eve drones to collect data. Eve could operate as a consumer device, a little like an AirDog drone which follows a diver around, which can also upload data to the cloud once it’s on the surface.

A Logical Indian article says that Bhattacharya wished to make an inexpensive drone that could be used at a large scale. Hydroswarms work in places where even GPS does not work. It can cover up to 100 sq km in a matter of just four hours.

For now, Hydroswarm would like to test the product by producing a consumer version, and then move into industrial and commercial versions later.