Solar Powered Wave Gliders Headed For Australia

A few days ago, Liquid Robotics launched four of its solar assisted unmanned Wave Gliders on a journey across the Pacific Ocean - with two of the units headed for Australia.

A few days ago, Liquid Robotics launched four of its solar assisted unmanned Wave Gliders on a journey across the Pacific Ocean – with two of the units headed for Australia.
   
The Wave Glider utilises wave and solar energy and can be propelled indefinitely without the need for other energy sources. Each unit contains 80 watts capacity of solar panels for battery charging, onboard electronics and payloads. Energy storage is in the form of a 665 Watt-hour lithium-ion rechargeable battery.
   
The Pacific adventure is the longest distance ever attempted by an unmanned ocean vehicle (UOV) according to the company and when the gliders reach their destinations, the vehicles will have earned a place in the Guinness World Records.
  
The 40,000 kilometre trip will be at a somewhat leisurely pace – with a speed of 0.4 to 2.0 knots, it’s expected to take the UOV’s around 300 days; during which the Wave Gliders will travel across regions never before remotely surveyed
    
Currently situated off the coast of California, the four Wave Gliders will travel together as far as Hawaii and then split into two groups, with one group headed for Japan and the other to Australia. The two Australia-bound aquatic robots are named Benjamin; after Benjamin Franklin, and Papa Mau; named after a Micronesian navigator.
   
The journey isn’t just about setting records – the vehicles will be collecting data along the way, which will be available in real-time for free to all who register.
   
Each wave glider will host a Seabird GPCTD with Dissolved Oxygen Sensor, Datawell MOSE-G Directional Wave Sensor, Airmar PB200 WeatherStation and a Turner Designs C3 Submersible Fluorometer.
   
Liquid Robotics says its Wave Gliders have logged over 100,000 miles of operations to date in various ocean observation, data collection, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. 
 
Originally a joint venture to develop an unmoored, station-keeping data buoy for monitoring humpback whales, Liquid Robotics was incorporated in 2007 to continue development of the Wave Glider. 
   

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