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Getting Ready to Leave the Nest

The hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) Nereus was tested several times from the Woods Hole dock in 2007, and recently underwent open-water trials off Hawaii in November. Now in the final stages of development, the one-of-a-kind vehicle can operate either as an autonomous, free-swimming robot for wide-area surveys, or as a tethered vehicle (as shown here) for close-up investigation and sampling of seafloor rocks and organisms.(Photo by Christopher Griner, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)