Hello everyone My name is Ermukhamed, I have been actively engaged in research in the field of marine technology and underwater drones for a year now. 

How did I come to this?

After enrolling in the doctoral program of the National Academy of Sciences of KazNTU named after K.I.Satpayev in 2019, my supervisor Tuleshov Yerkebulan Amandykovich offered me a research topic in the field of mobile robots. My eyes focused on special robotic systems, including Spacecraft, Medical exoskeletons and Marine Robotics. Based on my capabilities and craving for the Arctic shelf, I still decided to choose the third option for myself, and I think I did not miss out. 

Fields of application of marine robots

• Scientific research in the field of oceanology and automation
• Artistic underwater photography 
• Military and rescue operations
• Education, mobile robotics 
• Commercial purposes, mainly for solving engineering problems

TNPA is a remote-controlled uninhabited underwater vehicle. More than 80% of the market for all marine drones is TNPA, because operator control is much more reliable and safer than autonomous systems. But it is severely limited in the range and duration of the "flight", due to the length and quality of the cable - for receiving and transmitting control and telemetry signals. 

ANPA is an autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle. Following from the name, you can guess that the control of this device is carried out using a program sewn into the on-board computer. They are correspondingly less common than their "brothers" by managed operators, but the cost and tasks assigned are much broader and deeper. 

How is Kazakhstan connected in this case?

Most of the people with whom I had to talk about myself and my research are perplexed and often ask the same question: How will this help Kazakhstan?

Over the years, I have found a succinct and complete answer to this question: 

Why not try it? 

After that, I will begin a short lecture on environmental and man-made disasters, economic problems, and the branding of our country on the world stage in the field of robotics. For example, few people know that there is an NCOC organization - the North Caspian Operating Company - that orders underwater monitoring services for pipelines and reinforced concrete structures from a Russian company with a GNOME marine robot. That we do not have valid data on underwater cartography of reservoirs, but only satellite images. It should also be added about the absence of a domestic brand in this industry.  

After completing the doctoral program without going on an overseas internship due to COVID-19, I was unable to visit the Marine Technology Laboratory at Pahang University in Malaysia. After all the deadlines were passed, I had to prepare a lot of research reports (research work of a doctoral student) and start publishing scientific articles and monographs in leading scientific journals of the world to defend my dissertation.. 

Naturally, without conducting any real experiments, I became despondent and depressed, which lasted more than a year and a half. My University came to my aid and offered to take part in 25 engineering projects. The requirements are to form a team of students and make an estimate for obtaining a grant to implement the idea. 

I selected the skilled and really willing, and together we defended the project before the commission, which was headed by Rector Mr. Begentaev Meiram Mukhametrakymuly. The commission liked the project, after which we were given approval for implementation. I will not announce the amount of the grant (because I will violate the terms of the contract), but I will say openly, a little, but enough for this project. 

To take part in the work on laying a high-speed Internet cable connection funded by Vodafone. 

Yes, unfortunately, most people believe that the Internet is transmitted over the air, but the reality is much more severe. The entire Internet is connected by endless cables that are laid at the bottom of the sea. 

So, in order for us to have fair competition in the telecommunications market, this cable, which is laid at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, is the best solution. I like Elon Musk's project, but it will take much more effort to supply the whole of Kazakhstan with an affordable Internet connection than using ready-made land highways. 

The introductory post came out much longer than I had originally imagined. But the necessity of existing tasks I am obliged to. In the next post, I will write in detail about our results.

This post is entirely written by the author, some images are taken from open sources.