Budding engineers from Robert Gordon University will see their robotic invention put to work in the finals of a marine science competition in America this week.
The team of five were selected for the senior Explorer Class category of the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) competition, having won the Scottish regional finals.
The international final – which will take place at the Thunder Bay marine sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan – runs from June 26-28.
The third-year electrical and mechanical engineering students will be joined by a group of pupils from Mintlaw Academy, who won the Scottish regional Ranger Class finals, and the finalists of 20 other regional finals from across the world.
The students designed a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), and will be putting it to use in work at Alpena’s ship graveyard at Lake Haron.
They will be exploring and documenting shipwrecks, studying sinkholes, and conducting conservation work with the ROV – which they have named Swimming Haggis MKII.
Professor Graeme Dunbar, course leader for electronic and electrical engineering at RGU, said the competition – which will attract representatives from the US Navy and was “a big, big event”.
He added: “We have been involved in the competition since 2007 when we sent an RGU student team across.
“Every year the theme of the competition changes, this year it’s on Lake Haron and it’s a shipwreck theme.”
Prof Dunbar, who is also MATE’s regional co-ordinator for Scotland and a judge on the competition’s panel, said: “They have been working on their ROV all year. We have got high hopes for them.”