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Cal Poly Team Explores an Ancient World

4/24/09

CAL POLY -- A Cal Poly professor and his students are unlocking secrets of an ancient world with an underwater robot.

They just returned from a trip to Malta, the island nation just south of Sicily.

Chris Clark and six of his students were exploring what lies beneath ancient fortresses in Malta.

"Some of these cisterns, these old water storage tanks that were below the fortresses, date back to about 400 B.C.," said Clark.

The problem is that the access points to the caverns beneath the fortresses are very small, so people have not been able to go down a look at them.

Now, that is changing. Thanks to the robot and software written by the students, archaeologists are getting a look.

"We'd lower this thing down, using our tether until it would hit the water, we'd then turn on the controls and be able to start driving this thing around the tunnel system," said Clark.

Using sonar, the Cal Poly team is making maps with the data they collected.

"Basically after we're done exploring it, we'll have a blueprint for the under side of the castle," said Cory White, a Cal Poly student.