I am curious about any forays into using BEAM technology underwater but I have managed to find one website and little more. In particular, I have been tossing around the idea of using a legion of tiny, very inexpensive (even expendable) robots to collect data on the ocean, rivers, lakes, etc. I have been thinking about all sorts of little critters from simple message-in-a-bottle type data collectors that call for help when their memories are full to minnows that swim via various forms of locomotion communicating telemetry back to the mothership by sound. Unfortunately, knowing position is important to making the gathered data useful. But something like a GPS receiver uses too much power bringing the project out of the realm of BEAM robotics and into the world of the same stuff everybody else in the robotics field is doing.
BEAM seems uniquely suited to working cheaply for long periods underwater due to low power consumption and simplicity. But it may be too simple to provide much useful information. At least at this time.
I wonder if anyone has any comments. Is anyone out there working on something like what I'm talking about?
Andrew Barthle