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Robotics Science

Underwater Robot to Re-Cross Gulf Stream 88

Posted by Zonk from the who-doesn't-like-a-good-robo-ray? dept.
karvind writes "PhysOrg is running story about a small autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, named Spray which was launched yesterday (March 25, 2005) about 12 miles southeast of Bermuda. The two-meter-(6-foot)-long orange glider with a four-foot wingspan will slowly make its way northwest, crossing the Gulf Stream and reaching the continental shelf on the other side before turning around and heading back to Bermuda, where it will be recovered in July. Spray made history last fall as the first AUV to cross the Gulf Stream, but this time it is making the trip from the other direction."
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Underwater Robot to Re-Cross Gulf Stream More

Underwater Robot to Re-Cross Gulf Stream

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  • Bermuda (Score:2, Funny)

    by mfh ( 56 )
    before turning around and heading back to Bermuda

    Let's just hope it doesn't get gobbled up by those pesky Bermuda Triangle Aliens.

  • Is it nuclear powered? (Score:3, Funny)

    by physicsphairy ( 720718 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @04:35PM (#12056133)
    Because, if it is, we all know what happens [imdb.com] when you cross the streams.

  • Underwater Robot Sex (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What is the sound of two robots fucking?

    If two robots fuck, and no one is around to hear them, do they abort, retry, or fail?

  • Not nearly as cool... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by midifarm ( 666278 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @04:39PM (#12056161) Homepage
    As making a robot walk from Gilligan's Island to Honolulu!

    Peace

  • So far, the dream of thermal power has remained elusive.

    Can't wait to see autonomous, self-powered critters swimming around: bumping into boats and saying "beep beep".

    I guess they could be used to give updates on water quality or sumptin'

  • Daydreaming... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FrostedWheat ( 172733 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @04:48PM (#12056224)
    I've often wondered how difficult it would be to build something like this that is solar powered (stays on the surface), has small simple engines, GPS and a satellite radio to call home every day or so. It would be slow but if nothing breaks it could in theory cross huge distances.

    Would make a great competition! £20k for the first to cross the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland!
    • Simple engines? Do you mean as in cheap and just run or as in weak, because a weak engine wouldnt really be able to deal with the Atlantic Ocean's currents.
      • Simple engines? Do you mean as in cheap and just run or as in weak, because a weak engine wouldnt really be able to deal with the Atlantic Ocean's currents.
        Read the TFA, there is a nice part about the propulsion system used. I cite from the second article:

        Today's underwater gliders (Davis et al., 2002) are autonomous underwater vehicles that use battery powered hydraulic pumps to vary their volume by a few hundred cubic centimeters in order to generate the buoyancy changes that power their forward gliding

    • problem with solar is you have to elevate the cells above the surface, this poses a significant problem when you are trying to reduce drag as much as possible.

    • Re:Daydreaming... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pVoid ( 607584 )
      When you are crossing an ocean, (as opposed to a pool or a puddle), you most likely want to stay below the surface and avoid the wrath of 20 meter waves. A small motor will get you nowhere if you are going uphill on a wave of that kind. You might as well put a message in a bottle and hope it gets where you want it to.
    • Thats an interesting challenge.

      I am not so much a naysayer as the other posters

      you can push a 20 ton steel vessel with an 80 hp motor, and cross the atlantic.

      I am not an expert, but there are many variables to condider.. (any naval archetects out there ?) I do know that longer vessels have a higher maximum "hull speed" through the water (planing a different topic that would probably not apply to your challenge) but serious calculations of hull speed and resistance to obtain a required bhp can be done,

    • We're working on this as a vehicle for education... see website below. No recent updates, but we're drafting grant proposal. --dave

  • It's just a cover-up. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rolling_Go ( 859757 ) <holycrapbatman@hotmail.com> on Saturday March 26, 2005 @04:51PM (#12056240)
    So that those cokeheads [reuters.co.uk] can smuggle their stuff under the guise of "scientific testing".
  • will track its progress and are able to communicate with the vehicle via satellite during the mission to change course

    If they can change its course and affect its navigation, will they? I know it's not, but it almost seems to be bobbing around and riding the gulf stream to get to where it has to go.

    It would be much more interesting to create a self propelled autonomous robot to swim upstream from the mouth of the ocean to a specific river or stream the same way fish return to spawn where they hatched,
  • 2 meters, 50kg, 20km/day...

    Meanwhile, a man swims across the Atlantic ocean at 80km/day [bbc.co.uk], and a woman rows through the Pacific at 110km/day [news.com.au].

    And remember the fly-eating robot which crawls 5m/day [theinquirer.net]. I bet I could do better.

    I won't welcome our new UAV masters until one of them completes the International Aerial Robotics Competition [gatech.edu].

  • Spray Project Page (Score:5, Informative)

    by FreeHeel ( 620639 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:08PM (#12056338)
    SIO IDG Spray Home [ucsd.edu]

    from the site:

    What is SPRAY?

    'Spray,' shown above, is an underwater glider developed under ONR support by Scripps and Woods Hole scientists (Sherman et al., 2001) to provide a small long-range autonomous platform for long-term ocean measurements. 'Spray' uses primary-lithium-battery power and a hydraulic pump to periodically change its volume to alternately glide upwards and downwards. This results in a see-saw path at descent/ascent angles of 18-25 degrees and forward speeds of 25-35 cm/s. Heading and ascent/descent rate are controlled without control surfaces by moving weight (battery packs) inside the hull to change roll and pitch, much as a hang glider is controlled. As shown below, at the surface Spray rolls 90o to raise one of its wings, each of which contains a combined GPS/Iridium antenna. Using the wings to house antennas eliminates the drag associated with separate antenna housings and allows redundant systems so that communication and navigation can continue even if one antenna is damaged, as happened when one Spray was run over by a surface vessel...

    FreeHeel

    • Re:Spray Project Page (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      FYI, "Spray" is the name of the sloop in which Captain Joshua Slocum sailed solo around the world in the late 1800s. His book detailing the experience is available via Gutenberg and is, IMO, a very entertaining read.
      • Yes, I posted elsewhere about this.

        According to TFA, one of the other models of glider is actually called a "Slocum."

        Here is a URL where you can read "Sailing Alone Around the World" by Capt. Joshua Slocum in its entirety:

        http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/slocum 2. htm

        MM

    • The big question is... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Can this thing be built as large as a supertanker, and then used to carry cargo back and forth, possibly with the ocean currents doing most of the work (and the up-down gliding locomotion for the rest)?

      This would save quite a bit of fuel, though unloading cargo from what is essentially a submarine might be a bit trickier. Loading and unloading liquids only, like oil, should be no problem...

  • Forget Skynet... (Score:3, Funny)

    by PornMaster ( 749461 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:19PM (#12056394) Homepage
    The self-aware threat is now from the water!

  • Q/A (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zardus ( 464755 ) <yans@yancomm.net> on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:21PM (#12056406) Homepage Journal
    Q: Why did the robot cross the golf stream?

    A: To get to the continental shelf on the other side!

  • Coming soon : Jaws IX (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Mankind started developing robots in 20th century. Real developement came when commercial robots were inroduced in early 21st century. Now we all know the household robots - our faithful friends.

    But there was a secret nobody knew - army of underwater robots, results of crewl experiments, neglected to corode and left to die the ultimate underwater death. Now they are back for their revenge.

    Coming soon in summer of 2015 in theaters near you.
  • I'm struck looking at the diagrams how most of the bulk of Spray is made up of energy storage. Three separate banks of "Li CSC cells" ... "refueling costs ~ $3000". Energy is indeed very valuable -- something I think we tend to forget being constantly attached to the power grid.

    As a side matter, a google search [google.com] on Li CSC batteries doesn't turn up much. What are they exactly?

    • Re:price of energy (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bradee-oh! ( 459922 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:58PM (#12056589)
      As a side matter, a google search on Li CSC batteries doesn't turn up much. What are they exactly?

      Li/CSC seems to be an acronym for "Lithium Sulfuryl Chloride." Why they decided to make it look like Lithium/Computer Science, I dunno.

      This [powerstream.com] is the best link I could find with a description of the different battery technologies that also mentions Li/CSC. It seems the main characteristics of the Li/CSC battery is that it's rechargable, carries a higher-than-average voltage, has a VERY high energy density, and is suitable for high-current applications. It seems the ideal match for the Spray-type application.
      • Hey - thanks for the link -- it's very informative.
      • I'll have to correct you there. The cells they use are NOT rechargeable. Hence the $3000 "refueling" cost.

        They do seem to have a higher energy density though since they claim to get 13 MJ from 12 kg worth of cells. According to my calculations, you would have to have over 20 kg of Lithium-Ion-Polymer cells to achieve the same amount of capacity. They would cost about 2-3 times as much as the cells they currently use, but recharging them wouldn't cost much at all.

        If half the capacity was enough for them al
  • How much coke do you think one of these things could carry?

  • Six Feet ? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Ed Almos ( 584864 )
    'The two-meter-(6-foot)-long orange glider with a four-foot wingspan'.

    Last time I checked two meters was just over six and a half feet. What the hell, this is only Slashdot and who cares about a nine percent error !

    Ed Almos
    Budapest, Hungary

  • Marine Forecast (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thedogcow ( 694111 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:51PM (#12056542)
    Yay, I can use my marine meteorology education:

    A low pressure system developing off the southeastern United states will provide fresh to strong southwesterly winds for our little robot, ahead of an advancing cold front. Behind this frontal boundary, our little robot will have to work a little harder because he will be fighting some strong west to west-northwesterly winds. This is all within the next couple of days (obviously way before July).

    Swells will generally be from the SE, maybe 3-5 increasing to 5-7 later in the week. So that makes combined seas 8-10 ocnl 14 increasing to 9-11 ocnl 15 ft. Good luck little robot!

  • So when are coke smugglers going to realize they can build an army of robotic fish to smuggle their stuff.

  • Glider Info (Score:4, Informative)

    by OctaneZ ( 73357 ) <ben-slashdot2@nOsPaM.uma.litech.org> on Saturday March 26, 2005 @06:42PM (#12056864) Journal
    The glider was launched off Bermuda, and will make a roundtrip from Bermuda to Nantucket and then return to Bermuda to be retreived early this summer.
    Live Data is updated after each dive [whoi.edu].

    there is also salinity data but fewer people are interested in that.
    This being slashdot I'll also directly link Some of the engineering paramters [whoi.edu] we track.

  • Yeah, right. (Score:3, Funny)

    by MasonMcD ( 104041 ) <masonmcd&mac,com> on Saturday March 26, 2005 @07:58PM (#12057285) Homepage
    The two-meter-(6-foot)-long orange glider with a four-foot wingspan will slowly make its way northwest, crossing the Gulf Stream and reaching the continental shelf on the other side before turning around and heading back to Bermuda, where it will be recovered in July.

    I'll bet they just drop it with an anchor, follow some dots across a computer screen for laughs and the NSF grant committee, and come back in a few months to pick it up.

    It's probably just a big novelty display Sharpie [ucsd.edu] somebody stuck some lawnmower blades on.

    1. Steal big tradeshow prop
    2. Add Ph.D. after your name
    3. Drop in the water to big fanfare
    4. Profit!

  • Story behind the names Spray and Slocum (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mamba-mamba ( 445365 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @12:14AM (#12058399)

    I see that the gliders are called "Spray," and "Slocum."

    The people behind this project are obviously big fans of Joshua Slocum and his voyage aboard the Spray.

    For those of you who don't know, around the end of the 19th century, Slocum, a lifelong mariner who found himself without a ship to command, rebuilt the derelict hull of a 30-foot fishing sailboat, christened her "Spray," and sailed her around the world alone.

    He wrote a book about it called, strangely enough, "Sailing Alone Around the World." The book came out long enough ago that it has now passed into the public domain and can be read online in its entirety at, among other places:

    http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/slocum2. htm [arthur-ransome.org]

    My favorite line from Slocum's book:

    "I had taken little advice from anyone, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea."

    Later, Bernard Moitessier, a sort of French sailing hero (though he grew up in Indochina) sailed around alone, too. He had several boats throughout his life, and made many voyages. He named one of his boats "Joshua" after Joshua Slocum.

    Moitessier wrote several books, all of which were translated into English.

    MM

  • It's a right turn when you get to the other side...

  • Rat-In-A-Box Delivery System Prior Art (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dohboy ( 449807 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @01:50AM (#12058726)
    While an application of this technology could be used to stealthly deliver narcotics from South America or WMD from who-knows-where. With a zero sonar fingerprint, a submarine glider drone would be tough to stop.

    And if you that was absurd, recently a WWII Japanese submarine that was orginally intended to carry plague rats to America was just found off of Hawaii.
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2002214428_sub21.html/ [nwsource.com]

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