Zeus is an eight-ton remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that features monitors, computers, fiber optics, cameras, and other advanced technology that serve as the hands and eyes of the recovery crew. It has been vital in uncovering the shipwrecks that are featured at the museum. Out in the water, it is manned by two people stationed on a research vessel above the shipwreck.
Zeus has two manipulator arms that are capable of carefully lifting items up from the ocean floor. The recovery team members use the cameras to guide the arms across the ocean floor to pick up artifacts. If the item is small and delicate, it is picked up by a small rubber arm that is attached to one of the larger ones.
Try your hand at operating these robotic arms in the interactive exhibit! Visitors can control the arms with two joysticks to try to pick up coins in the sand. This is a lot of fun and way harder than it looks!
The museum also features a replica of Zeus’s towfish. A towfish is a sonar scan system that is pulled behind the research ship to scan the ocean floor in search of treasure. Images are sent to the research center where they are studied by archaeologists to determine if the shapes that show up on the scans might be a shipwreck.
