(sorolls aquàtics)
(Aquatic noises)
Aquest vídeo es va filmar al laboratori subaquàtic Aquarius, a 6 quilòmetres de la costa de Cayo, uns 20 metres sota l'aigua. La NASA fa servir aquest ambient extrem per entrenar astronautes i aiguanautes, i l'any passat, ens van convidar a fer-hi un volt. Tot es va filmar des del nostre OpenROV que és un robot que vam construir al nostre garatge.
So this video was taken at Aquarius undersea laboratory four miles off the coast of Key Largo, about 60 feet below the surface. NASA uses this extreme environment to train astronauts and aquanauts, and last year, they invited us along for the ride. All the footage was taken from our open ROV, which is a robot that we built in our garage.
ROV són les sigles (angleses) de vehicle amb control remot, que, en el nostre cas, vol dir que el nostre robotet envia imatges en directe per aquest nus ultra prim cap a l'ordinador a la superfície. Té codi obert, és a dir que publiquem i compartim tots els arxius de disseny i tot el nostre codi a la xarxa perquè qualsevol pugui modificar o millorar, o canviar el disseny. La majoria de components són comprades en botigues, i té un cost uns 1000 vegades més barat que els ROVs que James Cameron va usar per explorar el Titànic. Així que els ROVs no són una novetat, fa dècades que existeixen: els científics els fan servir per explorar els oceans; les petrolieres els fan servir per explorar i construir. El que hem construït no és únic. És COM ho hem fet, que és únic.
So ROV stands for Remote Operated Vehicle, which in our case means our little robot sends live video across that ultra-thin tether back to the computer topside. It's open source, meaning we publish and share all of our design files and all of our code online, allowing anyone to modify or improve or change the design. It's built with mostly off-the-shelf parts and costs about 1,000 times cheaper than the ROVs James Cameron used to explore the Titanic. So ROVs aren't new. They've been around for decades. Scientists use ROVs to explore the oceans. Oil and gas companies use them for exploration and construction. What we've built isn't unique. It's how we've built it that's really unique.
Us vull explicar ben ràpid com va començar. Fa pocs anys, el meu amic Eric i jo vam decidir que volíem explorar una cova submarina a la falda de les Sierras. Hi havia una llegenda sobre or perdut d'un robatori durant la Febre de l'Or, i volíem anar-hi. Desgràciadament, no teníem diners, ni eines per fer-ho. L'Eric havia fet un disseny inicial per a un robot, però no sabíem com fer cadascuna de les parts, així que vam fer el que faria qualsevol a la nostra situació: vam demanar ajuda a internet. Concretament, vam crear aquesta web, openROV.com, on vam explicar les nostres intencions i plans. Durant els primers mesos, només hi érem l'Eric i jo, parlant entre nosaltres als fòrums, però ben aviat, vam començar a rebre comentaris de fabricants i amateurs, i després de veritables enginyers navals que ens feien suggeriments sobre què havíem de fer. Vam continuar-hi treballant. Vam aprendre moltes coses. Vam seguir construint prototips i, al final, vam decidir que volíem anar a la cova. Estàvem preparats.
So I want to give you a quick story of how it got started. So a few years ago, my friend Eric and I decided we wanted to explore this underwater cave in the foothills of the Sierras. We had heard this story about lost gold from a Gold Rush-era robbery, and we wanted to go up there. Unfortunately, we didn't have any money and we didn't have any tools to do it. So Eric had an initial design idea for a robot, but we didn't have all the parts figured out, so we did what anybody would do in our situation: we asked the Internet for help. More specifically, we created this website, openROV.com, and shared our intentions and our plans For the first few months, it was just Eric and I talking back to each other on the forums, but pretty soon, we started to get feedback from makers and hobbyists, and then actually professional ocean engineers who had some suggestions for what we should do. We kept working on it. We learned a lot. We kept prototyping, and eventually, we decided we wanted to go to the cave. We were ready.
En aquell moment, la nostra petita expedició ja s'havia convertit en notícia i ens la va cobrir la New York Times. Nosaltres estàvem més aviat aclaparats per l'interès de la gent que volia un kit a partir del qual poguessin construir el seu propi OpenROV.
So about that time, our little expedition became quite a story, and it got picked up in The New York Times. And we were pretty much just overwhelmed with interest from people who wanted a kit that they could build this open ROV themselves.
Vam decidir publicar el projecte a Kickstarter, i en fer-ho, vam arribar a l'objectiu que teníem en dues hores, i de cop i volta, teníem prou diners per fer els kits. Però havíem d'aprendre com fer-los. És a dir, havíem d'aprendre a manufacturar petits lots. No vam tardar gaire en adonar-nos que el nostre garatge no era prou gran per encabir el nou negoci. Però ho vam aconseguir, vam fer tots els kits, moltes gràcies a TechShop, que ens va ajudar molt, i vam enviar els kits per tot el món, just abans del Nadal passat, és a dir, fa només uns mesos. Però ja comencem a rebre vídeos i fotos des de tot arreu del món, com ara aquesta imatge, des de sota el gel de l'Antàrtida. També hem après que els pingüins adoren els robots. (Riure)
So we decided to put the project on Kickstarter, and when we did, we raised our funding goal in about two hours, and all of a sudden, had this money to make these kits. But then we had to learn how to make them. I mean, we had to learn small batch manufacturing. So we quickly learned that our garage was not big enough to hold our growing operation. But we were able to do it, we got all the kits made, thanks a lot to TechShop, which was a big help to us, and we shipped these kits all over the world just before Christmas of last year, so it was just a few months ago. But we're already starting to get video and photos back from all over the world, including this shot from under the ice in Antarctica. We've also learned the penguins love robots. (Laughter)
Així que seguim pujant tots els dissenys a internet, animant a tothom a construir-se'n un. És l'única manera com ho podríem haver fet. Tenir codi obert ens ha permès crear aquesta xarxa estesa d'I+D, i ens movem més ràpid que qualsevol competidor amb inversors. Però el robot en si és només la meitat de la història. El potencial real, el potencial a llarg termini, és en aquesta comunitat d'exploradors de l'oceà que s'ho fan ells mateixos que s'està formant arreu del planeta. Què podem arribar a descobrir, quan hi ha milers d'aparellets d'aquests passejant pels mars?
So we're still publishing all the designs online, encouraging anyone to build these themselves. That's the only way that we could have done this. By being open source, we've created this distributed R&D network, and we're moving faster than any venture-backed counterpart. But the actual robot is really only half the story. The real potential, the long term potential, is with this community of DIY ocean explorers that are forming all over the globe. What can we discover when there's thousands of these devices roaming the seas?
Probablement us ho pregunteu: la cova. Vau trobar l'or? Bé, no en vam trobar pas, però vam decidir que el que vam trobar era molt més valuós. Va ser entreveure el futur potencial de l'exploració oceànica. No és una cosa limitada als James Camerons del món, sinó que tots hi participem. És un món submarí que explorem tots junts.
So you're probably all wondering: the cave. Did you find the gold? Well, we didn't find any gold, but we decided that what we found was much more valuable. It was the glimpse into a potential future for ocean exploration. It's something that's not limited to the James Camerons of the world, but something that we're all participating in. It's an underwater world we're all exploring together.
Gràcies.
Thank you.
(Aplaudiments)
(Applause)