After the invention of the telegraph, it was suddenly possible to send messages over long distances much faster than ever before, but cables are needed to transmit a telegraph, and initially a message had to be sent overseas by ship. This changed when the first telegraph cable was laid on the seabed between England and France in 1850. Plans were soon made for a cable that would cross the entire Atlantic. After many setbacks, the submarine cables became a great success and more were laid all over the world.
You might think that submarine cables are no longer necessary in light of modern satellites and Wi-Fi, but they are still crucial for communication and form the backbone of the internet. Modern fiber optic cables can transmit data much faster than satellite connections. The transmission of a signal across the Atlantic Ocean by cable is around eight times faster than transmission by satellite*. A place where submarine cables are connected to each other is called a submarine cable node. Panama is one of these hubs where cables from the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean converge. Underwater vessels and robots can help with the maintenance of this infrastructure and with new technical solutions at sea, such as offshore solar parks and even underwater data centers.
On the Junior age group game field, the robot helps to lay and repair undersea cables, install underwater server farms and activate offshore solar cells.