Localizing Underwater Robots from the Air

Abstract

A system includes an aerial drone with a queen component disposed thereon and an underwater robot with a worker component disposed thereon. The queen component is in electrical communication with the aerial drone and the worker component is in electrical communication with the underwater robot. The queen component is configured to steer a laser beam to locate and track the worker component and to sense light from the laser beam reflected by the worker component. A method includes deploying an aerial drone with a queen component disposed thereon in a first medium and determining a location of a robot in a second medium with a worker component disposed thereon using the aerial drone. The second medium is different from the first medium.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.