Hercules & Argus are a team of ROVs—remotely operated vehicles—used by the research ship E/V Nautilus to study underwater archaeology, biology, and geology. They know that it’s important to take a buddy with you when you go exploring!
You can read more about the specifics of these ROVs here: www.nautiluslive.org/tech. Hercules really does have two arms! In real life, rather than holding hands with Argus (which is accomplished with a tether), Hercules’ arms are used to pick up artifacts or samples from whatever its discovering.
Watch these ROVs and their human scientists explore the wreck of the USS Independence, an aircraft carrier that was intentionally scuttled off the coast of California, at this page: www.nautiluslive.org. The E/V Nautilus sails around doing this stuff all over the place, with live, narrated streaming video of what they’re finding. It’s pretty cool.
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Once again, this drawing was instigated by my husband, an underwater archaeologist who geeks out over this kind of thing.
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