Underwater Robot Powered By Ocean's Thermal Energy 40
separsons writes "A team of scientists recently created the world's first underwater robotic vehicle powered entirely by renewable ocean thermal energy. Researchers from NASA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the US Navy developed Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC), an autonomous robot that runs on a thermal recharging engine. The engine derives power from the natural temperature differences found at varying ocean depths. SOLO-TREC produces about 1.7 watts of power each dive, enough to juice the robot's science instruments, GPS receiver, communication device, and buoyancy control pump. SOLO-TREC is poised to revolutionize ocean monitoring; previous robots could spend only a limited amount of time underwater because of depleting power sources. SOLO-TREC can stay beneath the surface of the waves for indefinite amounts of time. Based on SOLO-TREC's success, NASA and the US Navy plan to incorporate thermal recharging engines in next-generation submersibles."
1.7 Watts of power each drive (Score:1)
Now does it hit 88mph?
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FTFA, it's 1.7 Watt-Hours (6100 Joules) generated, rather than 1.7 watts. It's still peanuts though really.
Re:1.7 Watts of power each drive (Score:4, Insightful)
FTFA, it's 1.7 Watt-Hours (6100 Joules) generated, rather than 1.7 watts. It's still peanuts though really.
It true that 1.7 Watt Hours isn't much, but it doesn't need to be a lot, it just needs to be enough.
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I'm puzzled over the "per dive" part of this. this seems to imply it's that downward dive itself that is some how producing the energy. that is to say this energy is not continuously produced but would require another dive cycle to produce. So it' can't stay down. perhaps it can cycles dives autonomously?
And how is this power produced. I'm going to guess what is happening is that it comes up and warms up till it's core temperature is at the ambient surface temperature. Then it drops like a rock, and
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My SWAG ( Sonarmans Wild Ass Guess) is that it has to repeatedly move up and down through the water column. One you are past the main thermocline the ocean is a pretty constant temp. It might be based on sterling or something like that.
Re:1.7 Watts of power each drive (Score:5, Informative)
And how is this power produced. I'm going to guess what is happening is that it comes up and warms up till it's core temperature is at the ambient surface temperature. Then it drops like a rock, and uses the heat differential between the core and the cold water to drive some thermo electric engine in reverse. perhaps they toss in some phase change material to extend the thermal capacity.
or is it something different?
Why not ask the people who built it? From http://solo-trec.jpl.nasa.gov/SOLO-TREC/ [nasa.gov] :
I'd like to add that JPL is of course the place to go to if you need to run gizmos for a long time on almost-no-energy input, reliably, in rather hostile environments. I mean - the Voyagers are still sending data home, 30+ years later , 100+ AU away and with a transmitter not much better than a modern cell phone...
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... Intel announces plans to ship systems equipped with an experimental 48-core CPU ... . According to Sean Koehl, technology evangelist with Intel Labs, the chip only draws between 25 and 125 Watts
Well, I guess this new sub won't have this Intel 48-core Gigantium Inside.
Go "further", more passive? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder...with the temperatures in the deep quite predictable, likewise at the surface in targeted time period and location, perhaps underwater glider with buoyancy control via passive mass having "weird" thermal expansion properties would be also feasible? Who knows if worthwhile though, with less precision and need for control pump anyway, for surfacing...
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How "direct" is the thermal engine in case of those underwater gliders that you mention? (and anyway, from what I've heard I was under impression that gliders generally store all required energy in batteries; why wouldn't they, if this new approach of thermal engine just showed up and seems is just in a buoy for now?)
I was wondering about very direct approach - using contraction and expansion of materials (specific for temperatures expected during particular mission) which don't follow "normal" thermal expa
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ARGO float, not ARGOS. Common mistake.
http://www.argo.net/
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The Deep Flight Merlin [deepflight.com] is positively buoyant and operates as an underwater plane.
How hard can it be? (Score:2)
How hard can it be to not mess up units while talking about energy and power?
How far can a 80 mph car go?
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"How far can a 80 mph car go?"
About 580,000 rods per hogshead, depending.
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But can it steer? (Score:2)
Can this robot hold a position, or return to a position upon surfacing and learning its position? Or is at the mercies of the ocean currents as to where it ends up?
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A steering AUV which is propelled under the ocean's thermal gradient is being developed by Teledyne Webb Research:
http://www.webbresearch.com/thermal.aspx
This has been around for a number of years so while the parent story is perhaps the first to be 'entirely' powered, the ocean has been powering such devices for years. The current model is 4th or 5th generation and is currently being flown in partnership with Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences:
http://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/
To t
Can it steer? No, it can't? (Score:2)
Can this robot hold a position, or return to a position upon surfacing and learning its position? Or is at the mercies of the ocean currents as to where it ends up?
No, it can't. It can adjust its depth; that's all.
Compare the Wave Glider [liquidr.com], from Liquid Robotics. This is a privately funded product. It has two parts, a surface "floater" that looks like a surfboard, and a tethered "glider", which hangs below it, about 10m underwater. Wave action on the floater pulls the glider up, and gravity brings it d
GPS? (Score:1, Interesting)
Hm? Underwater GPS receiver? I am quite sure that the readio signals from the satellites do not pass through water....
Did I miss something?
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Hm? Underwater GPS receiver? I am quite sure that the readio signals from the satellites do not pass through water....
Did I miss something?
The spell check?
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The vehicle has a probe that sticks out over the surface upon surfacing. After a short wait to allow the hydrophobic antenna cover to shed water, the GPS antenna is used to get data, and the Iridium antenna is used to send a message via SMS to the network with the data from a COTS PTS sensor and the GPS data and other health data.
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succinct. but the system is a phase change system, not a liquid density system.
A new energy source? (Score:1)
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I don't recall hearing about this technique for producing energy before. I wonder how useful it would be to make a similar device to produce energy and send it back up...
I'm betting that if it isn't a simple stirling engine of some sort (maybe a miniature form of what's in the Kockums submarine [stirlingengines.org.uk]) then it might be some form of OTEC [wikipedia.org] which would explain the "per dive" referenced in the article as it has to pass from one thermal extreme to the other.
Underwater robot powered by nature (Score:1, Informative)
We did run this story on April 07, 2010 (link is here: http://www.global-adventures.us/2010/04/07/underwater-robot/). Temperatures at depth are not always easy to predict since they are influenced by many factors including ocean currents, light penetration (i.e. algae bloom). If it's made available, this technology will allow scientists to cover larger bodies of water, gain more data and over time a better understanding of whats going on in our Oceans.
Atlantic Glider (Score:1)
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The Rutgers vehicle depended on primary batteries, which is arguably the wiser choice for a variety of reasons. Primary batteries are used to successfully deploy ARGUS probes for years at a relatively low cost (I believe $5k a copy or less), and even power the displacement pumps used for profiling. The passive wax system is nothing new and can be more economical for longer missions than primary batteries for profiling control, although there is really no size or weight advantage. The use of the phase change