By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), better known as a submersible, has become stuff of the movies ever since it was used in some scenes in the movie Titanic. It found huge applications in the underwater research, mining and salvaging sectors.

One Filipino company aims to be a player in this industry.

Pobletech Inc recently released the Roboteknik i100, country’s first commercial ROV, a robotic machine that can submerge to a depth of up to100 meters and be controlled via remote control box. The ROV and the control box are all connected via an umbilical cord that serves as both power and data cable for the ROV, which transmits live streaming video to a monitor on a control box.

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By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

Rainy season is here again. The crops, trees, and plants would gladly bathe under the showers of rain. However, when typhoons strike and floods flow like a river, the trees would sway and dance in a fast forward rhythm and plants may drown and die.

But among the plants, one variety of rice can survive flooding. This rice variety is named sub1 or submergence1, according to Dr. Dave Mackill, head of the plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology division of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Mackill and other researchers from IRRI and the University of California in Riverside and in Davis campuses have discovered from an Indian rice variety FR13A a gene that can withstand flooding of up to 17 days.

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MANILA — Filipino Physicist Caesar Saloma and Singaporean virologist Lisa F.P. Ng didn’t see themselves as heroes when they were younger.

They were only interested in pursuing their interests. Saloma liked how light works while Ng had a keen sense on biology. Their work bordered on laboratory science that very few knew would have an impact on industries and society.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE REMOTELY Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV), better known as a submersible, has become the stuff of movies, ever since it was used in some scenes in “Titanic.” It found a lot of applications in the underwater research, mining and salvaging sectors. One Filipino company aims to be a player in this industry.

Pobletech Inc. recently released the Roboteknik i100, country’s first commercial ROV, a robotic machine that can submerge to a depth of up to 100 meters and be guided via a remote control box. The ROV and control box are all connected via an umbilical cord that serves as both the power and data cable for the ROV, which transmits live streaming videos to a monitor on the control box.

Here’s a video I took of Michael Poblete, CEO of Pobletech, shows off the Roboteknik.

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