By Elizabeth Harvey Bermuda's waters were graced last week with the presence of one of the smallest and most advanced underwater submarines in the world.

Here for a week of intense testing, the mini-sub arrived with a team of four engineers from the Underwater Vehicles Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Odyssey 2 , which was developed by MIT, is one of the smallest automated submarines in the world measuring just over two metres long and 67 centimetres in diameter.

So far it has explored the ocean floor in the Arctic, in the West Pacific and in the Atlantic off Florida.

Preparing for a tough new project -- mapping the Juan de Fuca ridge off the west coast of the United States, the submarine was based at the Bermuda Biological Station as it carried out a series of navigational tests last week.

"Bermuda is a wonderful operational environment because it is so close to deep water,'' said Principal Research Engineer at MIT, Dr. James Bellingham.

Computer operated and compact, he claimed the sub could plunge to depths of up to six kilometres.

"The general idea was to make vehicles which do not need a man in them and are not attached to a tether,'' Dr. Bellingham said. "They are therefore smaller and a lot less expensive.'' This model costed about $50,000 -- 20 times less than conventional research models, he said.

But while automated submarines are not likely to replace man operated submarines, the mini variety would make "an extremely powerful additional research tool'' according to Dr. Bellingham.

"They will change the way we look at the ocean,'' he claimed.

The US Navy first began research into automated submarines in the 1960s. Since then, giant strides have been made in using them as research vessels to explore the ocean floor.

But so far, less than a fraction of a percent has been mapped.

"We have mapped so little of the ocean,'' said Dr. Bellingham. "We are hoping to do a much better job.'' But to negotiate the adverse environment of deep underwater conditions, Dr.

Bellingham said navigational equipment had to be highly sophisticated.

"It has to be very intelligent. It has to be capable of taking care of itself in a hostile environment,'' he said.

The submarine contains ten computers which record data such as temperature, water clarity and salinity. The vessel also contains a mapping sonar and camera system for making surveys.

LITTLE TYKE -- Dr. Jim Bellingham (left) and Dr. Bradley Moran both of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tested one of the smallest deep water submarines in the world off Bermuda last week. They used the Bermuda Biological Station as a base to launch Odyssey 2 which measures just 2.2 metres in length.