How many people in the world don't get the chance to once in life experience the magic of the oceans. Some are lucky to visit a few aquariums, but many just got to see several pictures of the deep seas in a couple lessons during primary and high school. 

We have an ambitious but realistic goal: To make ocean exploration for everyone.  You probably can't afford expensive equipment for a real dive into the ocean, but it's high likely you can be connected to a good internet. 

Our team, Aalto Explorer, started from a university project, at Aalto University, envisions a remote vehicle and a network application – the so-called expedition platform – to be controlled by the community and be made available to any ocean-enthusiasts, casual explorers and life-long learners, sending them on exciting journeys of oceanic exploration on their own terms and at their own pace. 

A team of more than 15 people from multi-disciplines have worked on a voluntary basis for the last two years, to finally produce the third prototype with game-changing features. Dive in our story below for more. We are here, on Indiegogo to day to bring this further to life. We want to build more of the AE system to deploy around the world, so you can learn about our oceans, experience their wonder, right at where you are. 

Aalto Explorer is a seamless underwater technology network that makes ocean exploration more accessible and affordable than ever - for you, your friends and family from wherever you are with a working internet connection.

The system consists of 3 components working together in harmony:

• Find-X, the Underwater Drone  
• Floating Module, anchor, communication and power support to Find-X  
• Aalto Explorer expedition platform, where you access and control the drone through the Internet.

The community and/or experts can organize and book an expedition on one of the FIND-X units deployed around the world. 

Take a Demo ride with us as a PASSENGER to get a hang of it: Click at the button below and fill in the Demo's code: PAS1234

Aalto Explorer is not just a drone, it is a community of explorers from all around the world who can plan the expeditions and lead them through Aalto Explorer platform. You can join whether you are a researcher and would like to have a realtime data without leaving the lab. Or you can be the one in control, having thousands of people following your expedition. You can be learning new diving areas, searching for the shipwrecks or just exploring the ocean.
There is a number of possible applications.

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Aalto Explorer at World Oceans Day, held at Oodi Central Library, Helsinki. 

No longer is the need for purchasing costly underwater drones and submarines or taking an exorbitant diving trip. The deep sea is within your reach. Aalto Explorer is an underwater network that enables you to explore the ocean right on your device.

FEATURES:

• Operate at least 50m of  depth
• Use thrusters for movement, allowing six degrees of freedom. Include one 360° Full HD or 4K livestream video camera with VR function.
• One or two additional Full HD or 4K video cameras can be added if needed for navigation.
• Underwater LED lights per each camera's lenses.
• Sensors: IMU, compass, depth, pressure, temperature, PH, salinity, humidity (inside the ROV) and mic.
• Vacuum air sealing.
• The umbilical cord must be detachable.
• The ROV must be reactive - through sensors- to its environment.
• They must prevent or alert of any collision derived from a mistake from the Captain user.
• Have a base that allows the ROV to rest on the ocean floor.
• A space/grip to attach a hook to pull it back to the surface if the thrusters stop working.

FEATURES:

• Harvest solar energy on lithium batteries for the product operation (floating module and ROV).
• Store and deploy the ROV while not in use.
• Operate with a 4G or 5G modem with WiFi capabilities.
• Waterproof container for all electrical components.
• Mechanism to release and retract an anchor.
• Design a mechanism that release and retract the ROV’s umbilical cord while it operates.
• Integrate a GPS system to track the floating module's location.
• 360° Full HD or 4K video camera streaming with VR function.
• Perimetral bumpers to keep the structure safe.
• Lights and reflectors to locate the module during the night.

The Aalto Explorer Platform is an open ocean exploration community platform. You can find all the expeditions, get tickets to participate, interact with like-minded fellows and show off your marine knowledge. 

REAL-TIME FOOTAGE OF THE OCEAN’S BIZARRE CREATURES, TREASURES, AND MORE

THE SYSTEM IS UNDER YOUR CONTROL. LEAD THE JOURNEY WITH OTHER OCEAN LOVERS IN YOUR VIRTUAL CRUISE

FIND - X has a sensitive microphone, allowing the best recordings of the undersea. Sensors are included to measure temperature, salinity, pH level, and water pressure. The rover has robotic grippers to collect marine samples.

AFFORDABLE REAL-TIME OCEAN DATA FOR RESEARCHERS

The vastness of the Earth’s oceans - only five percent of which is known.

What does it mean for us?

Oceans cover approximately 70% of our planet’s surface; yet, the majority of our oceanic knowledge lies in the shallower waters. 95% of our oceans remain unexplored, with up to 99% of the seadbeds still kept hidden from our probing curiosity and intellect.

Unlocking of the mysteries of the deep-sea ecosystems may reveal new alternative sources of medicines, foods, energy and other products for our economic function and daily life.

Data from deep-ocean exploration can assist earthquake and tsunami prediction and enrich our study of human’s impact on Earth’s environment and how these changes in turn affect us. Access to information from ocean excursions also improves ocean literacy and inspires young people to seek careers in fields such as natural sciences, technology, engineering, etc. relating to the ocean and to get closer to understanding this mysterious, serene yet pulsatingly fierce, wet body of our planet. Reasons to advance the exploration of deep waters are certainly aplenty.

Just what is hindering humans from exploring the deep seas

Harsh undersea conditions aside, explorers are faced with high costs and seriously underfunded (NASA’s annual budget is 1000 times that of NOAA’s ocean exploration in 2019).

The past decade has seen many projects come into being and fade into oblivion. Ocean science hasn’t quite gained the commercial traction it needs or attracted the kind of money that have instead been poured into drone technologies and space probes. Many projects come to dead ends and their value is eventually only good for an academic paper or two. For instance, bio-inspired robots ranging from Robo-fish, tuna, octopus, turtle to even manta ray have all taken a spin around the water tank, for better and more efficient ocean exploration, only to breathe their last when their grants and funding are up. Such is the fate of the majority of experimental designs.

We’re doing crowdfunding on Indiegogo to obtain enough fund to ensure this project will happen! But we don’t want to stop there. We have a lot more we want to add to Aalto Explorer to make the exploration experience even better, and and we need your help to do it!

For every ticket contributed by backers in Indiegogo campaign for Aalto Explorer project, we will donate 1 passenger ticket to an education institution, to bring ocean experience and knowledge to people all around the world.

Aalto Explorer originated from the classroom of the Aalto University Product Development Project (PdP) course back in 2017 as a student project sponsored by the company Aalto Industries. A multidisciplinary team of over 15 experts in the fields of engineering, design and business gathered for an ambitious vision: making everyone an ocean explorer, starting by sending a remotely-controlled underwater vehicle to the Baltic Sea in the summer.

The team’s focused and intense work has paid off in the form of 2 prototypes, V1.0 and V2.0, and another, most up-to-date prototype V3.0.  AE team has made certain achievements with the first two prototypes and V 2.0 was selected for exhibition at the Dubai Design Week. Yet, V3.0 with its upgrades is a real game-changer. You can read more of the development process at our blog 

The Sustainability component is strongly embedded in the design of our Aalto Explorer product-service system and manifests in the following manner:

Through the product - We design our underwater drone to have a low environmental impact on marine ecosystems. In our latest version, the Find-X is free-floating instead of running tracks on the seafloor as in previous versions, thus having no effect on the seafloor. In addition, the underwater drone is fully powered by solar energy, which is self-sufficient and renewable.

Through the service - our system is designed to be accessible to as many people as possible, maximizing product use both by unit and time and eliminating the need for high-volume production. Our Find-X can be enjoyed by thousands of people around the world around the clock, rather than docked for most of the time like privately owned underwater drones. This way we also reduce inequality - making underwater exploration available to the many instead of exclusive to the few who can afford it. 

Visitors at our World Oceans Day

Aalto Explorer also supports sustainable development goals that encourage sustainable use of the oceans, reduce inequalities, and improve education. We provide a complex solution and new tools for different persons and entities with different interests and needs. 

It is challenging to come from the grassroots, thus we are calling for support empowerment from other organizations with a voice such as Helsinki Design Week, to create a positive impact on the people and planet on a larger scale. 

Want to write about us, check out this link, or contact us for more detailed information:

For every ticket contributed by backers in Indiegogo campaign for Aalto Explorer project, we will donate 1 passenger ticket to an education institution, to bring ocean experience and knowledge to people all around the world.