Surfing Robot Tracks Great White Sharks

ackthpt writes "A network of fixed buoys and solar powered surfing robots called Wave Gliders are set to track Great White Sharks in the Pacific, off the California coast near San Francisco, between Monterey Bay and Tomales Point. According to PhysOrg, 'The self-propelled wave and solar-powered glider is part of a new network of data receivers on fixed buoys will pick up signals from acoustic tags on animals passing within 1,000 feet and transmit the data to a research team on shore, led by Stanford University Marine Sciences Prof. Barbara Block.' Related to the project is 'Shark Net,' a new iOS app 'available free of charge at the Apple app store, created by Dr. Block and her colleagues with developers from TOPP, EarthNC and Gaia GPS to enable a direct, personal connection between the public and wild marine animals and to raise public awareness of the ocean wilderness teeming with life just off North America's West Coast.'"

Re:

[ackthpt]

lasers?

I considered it, but it's a little overplayed and the likelihood of the Powers That Be at /. letting it slide (again) were pretty remote (they didn't allow it the first time I tried a shark related article, either.)

I really like the little solar powered surfboard, though. I'd like one just a bit bigger with a cooler on board.

Re:

[deapbluesea]

I really like the little solar powered surfboard, though. I'd like one just a bit bigger with a cooler on board

Just went to a talk on those Wave Gliders by James Gosling (yes, that James Gosling [wikipedia.org]). They're pretty cool little robots, but technically they don't surf. One of the questions asked by the audience was about scaling up the size of the robots. Mr. Gosling used the Nyquist Sampling Theorem to discuss why bigger would result in less power from the waves since the robot's locomotion is essentially based on spatially sampling wave height. Not to say there is an optimal size since sea state varies quite a bit,

goddamned bait-and-switch!

[Thud457]

Surfing Robot Tracks Great White Sharks

that [physorg.com] was nowhere near as cool as I imagined it.

Re:goddamned bait-and-switch!

[SomePgmr]

Yeah, this other one from today was way awesomer.

http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/17/arduino-controlled-shark-detection-system/ [makezine.com]

Re:

[Thud457]

I mean, once you've programmed a robot to ride a surfboard, having it harpoon sharks should be trivial.

Come on CalTech, I heard MIT's already got one!


great, a quick google image search, and now I can't get Whitney Houston [winniecooper.net] out of my head.

Ours are proactive!

[clockt]

The sharks off the West Australian coast are much more proactive; we count ours by the number of people they eat. We're at 5 in the last 12 months, and counting. Personally, I don't blame them given the treatment they get by the soup makers.

These robots?

[fard69]

http://stuffilikenet.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/surfing-samurai-robots/ [wordpress.com]