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Solar-Powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Posted by timothy on from the seanet dept.

sunhou writes "A couple of months ago, researchers tested a solar-powered autonomous underwater vehicle (SAUV) at RPI's Darrin Fresh Water Institute. (More pictures and links to info available at the Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute.) Current autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) need to be taken out of the water often to have their batteries recharged. The goal is to have groups of cooperating SAUVs loaded with sensors and networking equipment deployed on long-term monitoring missions. Watch out Sky-Net, here comes Sea-Net! (See also the recent story about The Argo Project.)"

3 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Perhaps someone should tell them by bryan986 · · Score: 0, Informative

    Perhaps you should look at this http://mbgnet.mobot.org/salt/oceans/zone.htm

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  2. Not to mention... by wasted · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..the difficulty with radio transmissions. The article mentions networking to transmit the data. If underwater networking was easy, the US Navy wouldn't have used ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) systems to control their submarines.

  3. Re:There missions must not go very deep. by BlowChunx · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you are only slightly heavier than the surrounding water, and shaped like a wing, then gliding slowly down to depth is not energy intensive.

    When you reach the depth you want, pump the ballast out (or use electrolysis to make gas?) and slowly rise to the surface, again gliding slowly upwards.

    With the yo-yo glider technique, you can cover huge areas.