Word: tether
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Quite often the works that seem most "expressionist," the clearest indexes of a mind approaching the end of its tether, are the most tenderly scrupulous in their treatment of fact. One has only to go to Saint-Remy and stand on the edge of the olive grove outside the asylum, looking south toward the chain of limestone hills called the Alpilles, to realize that Van Gogh changed nothing essential in the view when painting Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background in the spring of 1889. The heaving stratification of the limestone, its caverns and holes, and the turbulent...
More advanced craft are on the way. The Navy's National Ocean Systems Center in San Diego is developing ROVs that operate free of a tether. These AUVs--autonomous underwater vehicles--will be programmed for missions before they are dropped overboard. "The next step," says Howard Talkington, head of NOSC's engineering and computer science department, "is to do away with the umbilical cord and operate the ROV completely in a robotic manner...
...dive, the scientists deployed "Jason Jr.," a self-propelled, lawn-mower-size robot armed with still and video cameras. Guided by Bowen, the robot -- nicknamed "J.J." -- made oceanographic history by actually entering the Titanic. It glided down the ship's grand staircase at the end of a 250-ft. tether through which it transmitted live images to the three scientists in Alvin's cramped cabin. There was nothing left of the staircase itself; like much of the Titanic's celebrated woodwork, it had long since been devoured by wood-boring organisms. On every deck, though, exquisite glass and crystal chandeliers...
...propelled itself through the first-class entranceway to glimpse the ship's gymnasium. It went over the side and made an unsuccessful attempt to squeeze through portholes on the promenade deck. Said Ballard: "He has to go on a diet." There was an anxious moment as J.J.'s tether caught on a jagged piece of metal, but Bowen maneuvered the robot back and forth until it pulled free...
...researchers cancelled plans to send Jason Jr., a camera-equipped robot inside, fearing that the stern's mangled opening would have snared the remote unit's electrical tether. "Too spooky," Ballard replied when asked how difficult conditions were...