KAIKO
Galería
Descripción general
JAMSTEC's celebrated deep-sea ROV lineage, whose original vehicle reached 10,911 m in the Mariana Trench and whose current Mk-IV performs heavy scientific work to 4,500 m.
KAIKO is JAMSTEC's multi-generation deep-sea ROV program and a landmark in robotic ocean exploration. The original vehicle reached 10,911.4 m in Challenger Deep in 1995, later returned biological and microbial samples from beyond 10,000 m, and helped discover hydrothermal communities. Today's fourth-generation KAIKO Mk-IV is a 3 m, 4.8-tonne heavy-work ROV rated to 4,500 m. It travels at 0.5 to 1 knot, carries up to 100 kg in water, and combines dual seven-function manipulators with HD imaging, environmental sensors, sonar, inertial navigation, and DVL. The record therefore separates the current vehicle's specifications from the original full-ocean-depth achievement.
Roles principales
Notas
Specifications describe the current KAIKO Mk-IV. The first-generation 10,000 m-class vehicle made the record 10,911.4 m dive in 1995 and was lost after a cable failure in 2003; the current 4,500 m-rated vehicle entered operation in 2016 and began launcher-less operation in 2022.
