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This project sounds incredible, and it is. Encapsulated in an ice-melting probe, a robot developed by researchers from member institutions of the U Bremen Research Alliance will be transported through a 4,000-meter layer of ice to independently explore new worlds – initially in Antarctica, and eventually in space. “TRIPLE” is the name of this ambitious joint project: “Technologies for Rapid Ice Penetration and subglacial Lake Exploration”. It consists of several individual projects involving researchers from a total of three member institutions of the U Bremen Research Alliance.
If all goes well,” says Sebastian Meckel, “the door of the probe will open, the docking station will release the robot, it will swim away, take its measurements, return, and be recharged.” The leading engineer will be in the Antarctic to see if this plan works from the cool surface of the Ekström Ice Shelf, close to the German Polar Research Station Neumayer III. The field trial is scheduled for spring of 2027, preceded by a test in a fjord in Greenland in April 2026. The ice of the Ekström Ice Shelf is up to 200 meters thick. The field test, however, is a step on the path to much greater depths. By the end of the decade, the robot is expected to advance to a depth of 4,000 meters in the Dome C Region of Antarctica.
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen is leading a TRIPLE sub-project: TRIPLE-nanoAUV2. Industrial partners take part in developing the “Autonomous Underwater Vehicle” (AUV), as does the Robotics Innovation Center of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). 60 centimeters long, ten centimeters in diameter and with a bulging nose. The vehicle does not look impressive on the outside, but what is inside makes it truly remarkable. Several sensors, cameras, drive technology, batteries, computer chips, electronics – “all of this needs to work in a very confined space and be able to withstand the Dome C region’s ambient pressure of up to 400 bars,” says project leader Prof. Dr. Ralf Bachmayer, describing one of the challenges of the project.
In addition to the University of Bremen’s MARUM and the DFKI, another member of the U Bremen Research Alliance is also part of the TRIPLE research: the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. “TRIPLE Life Detect” is the name of the subproject that intends to measure traces of life under the ice, searching for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen as well as environmental DNA, which would give evidence of current and previous inhabitants. This is done using underwater sensors. “With our partners, we are developing scientific uses for this equipment,” Malte Pallentin, engineer at AWI explains. Previously, AUVs in the deep sea only measured one or two parameters. By contrast, the mini robots should be capable of gathering many different traces of life, with even smaller sensors.
“Due to the connections between marine and space technology within the U Bremen Research Alliance, the location is predestined for a project such as TRIPLE,” Bachmayer is convinced. “In Germany, even in all of Europe, there is nothing comparable.” Dr. Leif Christensen,Team Leader for Maritime Robotics at DFKI, views things similarly: “Many people from different fields work together over long periods of time on projects like this. When we then see how the robot we developed together swims, that is very rewarding,” he describes his fascination with research.
An exciting article about the contribution made to the TRIPLE project by researchers from member institutions of the U Bremen Research Alliance was recently published in the science magazine "Impact" of the U Bremen Research Alliance. It can be accessed on the following website:
https://www.bremen-research.de/en/impressions/triple
Contact:
Merle El-Khatib
Communication und marketing
Tel.: +49 421 218 60046
merle.el-khatib@vw.uni-bremen.de
About UBRA:
The University of Bremen and twelve federal and state financed non-university research institutes cooperate within the U Bremen Research Alliance. The Alliance includes research institutes of the four major German science organizations, i.e. Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association and Max Planck Society, as well as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.
Impact - The U Bremen Research Alliance science magazine Issue 10
Since 2019 the Impact science magazine provides an exciting insight into the effects of cooperative research in Bremen. "A Mini Robot for Icy Depths" was published in issue 10 (September 2024).
https://www.bremen-research.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Einblicke/Impact_10/UBRA_Im...
https://www.bremen-research.de/en/impressions/triple
Testing the mini robot in the large test basin of the DFKI Maritime Exploration Hall.
Jens Lehmkühler
U Bremen Research Alliance
Prof. Dr. Ralf Bachmeyer (l.) and Dipl. Ing. Sebastian Meckel lead the TRIPLE research at MARUM.
Jens Lehmkühler
U Bremen Research Alliance
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