UNIS

The UNIS, an acronym for the Unmanned Nautical Informational Submersible are automatic robot submarines that were created by the Tanaka Oceanographic Institute. The UNIS was originally designed and developed in 1979 by the institute's CEO, Masao Tanaka, to study whale populations in the wild. It was reconfigured in 1997 in conjunction with JAMSTEC (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center) to record and track seismic disturbances along deep-sea trenches.

Description
Each of the UNIS' unit system is composed of a 3 inch thick titanium outer shell and is supported by three retractable legs, with the unit itself weighing up to 2,600 pounds. Each unit is designed to withstand pressure of 35,000 pounds per square inch and communicates information back to a surface ship by a way of fiber optic cable.