19 August 2015 |

The drone technology has literally changed our life style and the way that we look at the world. Imaging, you are seeing an 2000 degrees Fahrenheit volcano from the sky and you can maneuver the drone as per your wish to take different angle snapshots and videos! Sounds good? And most important thing is that it is possible in affordable cost.  Due to technology advancements, Aerial drone increasingly becomes more affordable and developers from a wide variety of global industries are consistently formulating creative ways to utilize drones to increase efficiency and productivity. From pizza delivery, to film making, search and rescue operations, scientific research, photography, agriculture, gaming drones have literally changed our thinking and working style.

After affordable and portable aerial drones, now it’s time for affordable underwater drones to change underwater life. Around 71% of our planet is full of water and it is more challenging and exciting than aerial one due to difficult communication and increasing hydraulic pressure with increasing depth in water.

Fathom, a startup accepted this challenge and making world’s first jet propelled consumer underwater drone. Fathom drone is easily portable with 4.5 lbs weight and affordable with $600 expected price. Fathom drone is in last phase of development and last week Fathom successfully tested first prototype’s jet propellers.

“In a nutshell, Fathom One is about embracing human curiosity. We live in a world that’s 71% water, yet we’ve only been able to explore 5% of it for one simple reason: underwater exploration has been limited to those with extensive funding and experience. Once we break down these barriers and open it up to everyone, we think what happens next will be really exciting. We want Fathom to inspire people to go out and explore places no one else has seen, discover a treasure that’s been lost for centuries, or go on an adventure of their own” Fathom Co-creator Danny Vessells told to Robot Globe.

The body of the drone is in three-part acrylic shell attached by 8 machine screws with a silicone seal. (13’’ x 7.5’’ x 7.5’’) size Fathom drone is available with various body color options. Fathom drone allows you to explore underwater places that until now, you could only imagine. Fathom drone can go up to 100 ft (30m) deep into the water and its range is 100 ft from shore station plus 100 ft tether. Fathom drone with custom embedded control circuitry can operate between temperatures 32-100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drawing inspiration from the reaction control systems aboard spacecraft, the Fathom drone’s steering and propulsion gives you the fine tune control you need, when you need it – using only one propulsive motor. Fathom uses a brushless motor as drive and four 2.5kg/cm mini servo motors for valve actuation.

As for communication, Fathom works similarly to other underwater drones. A Tethered wire connects the actual drone to a small shore station on the surface, which you connect to wirelessly on your smart device. The tether is for communication. Data is received from both the WiFi module (video) as well as the Bluetooth module (sensor data).

Anyone can explore the exciting world of underwater very easily with Fathom free Android and iOS user friendly app – simply plug it in, launch the app, and go explore. App serves as the user interface for controlling the drone; you can view and manage photos/videos from this app.

Fathom Team

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• Explore further: 
  • Buoyant Rover: NASA Tested Under Ice Rover for Exploration
  • ’Plankzooka’ Larval Robotic Sampler May Revolutionize Deep-Ocean Research

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