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Underwater robots search for World War II's missing dead

Underwater robots search for World War II's missing dead

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b-24 wwii bomber (wikimedia)
b-24 wwii bomber (wikimedia)

There are dead American soldiers at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and Pat Scannon is working to bring them home. Scannon is the founder of the BentProp Project, which conducts underwater expeditions to search for old World War II fighter planes off the coast of Palau, and the remains that may be inside them. For two decades, Scannon's work has relied on historical records and old maps, but as Andy Isaacson writes in a piece for Popular Science, underwater robotics are playing an increasingly important role. An underwater robot known as Remus has begun scanning the floor of the Pacific Ocean floor, capturing imagery and using sonar to create maps and detect any hunks of metal that may be buried in mud. The technology has made it a lot easier for Scannon to retrieve buried remains, and piece their history together.