Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said the Navy and Defence Science and Technology Organisation used an unmanned underwater vehicle to inspect a 9.5km stretch of water near Barangaroo Wharf before the Pope arrived there last month.

''The use of autonomous submersibles, such as the one used in this case, saves enormous time and resources as well as reducing the exposure of human divers to potentially hazardous situations,'' Mr Snowdon said at the launch of the organisation's new research facility in Sydney yesterday.

He said robotic technologies, which the organisation was investigating for military applications, were also being used to help create three-dimensional virtual representations of Sydney Harbour, Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane to assess security risks and develop counter-measures against a potential terrorist attack.

He also launched the organisation's ''top 10 science and technology reports'', as voted by staff and former defence scientists.

''It is not surprising that the top 10 papers selected were those that illustrated world-leading science and the pioneering work of Australia's defence scientists; namely metal fatigue and full-scale fatigue testing, a wet process for photocopying, coastal surveying with airborne laser, a new method for thermo-elastic stress measurements, aircraft repairs with composite materials, computer information security, surveillance with over-the-horizon radar, and a reliable new process for screening certain chemical weapons,'' he said.

''The favourite paper, as voted by staff, was the story of the development of the black box flight recorder, now used on all passenger aircraft throughout the world.''