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Underwater Robot to Re-Cross Gulf Stream
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."
before turning around and heading back to Bermuda
Let's just hope it doesn't get gobbled up by those pesky Bermuda Triangle Aliens.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Because, if it is, we all know what happens when you cross the streams.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
What's with the links in the story to advertisments rather than related information? I find it hard to believe the sub communicates using microsoft's IM.
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?
Yes the concepts of aerodynamics that airplanes use is the same for vehicles underwater. Look at the planes on submarine they are wings.
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Peace
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'
http://spray.ucsd.edu/pic/spray.jpg
"'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."
Excerpt from TFA, http://spray.ucsd.edu/
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!
So that those cokeheads can smuggle their stuff under the guise of "scientific testing".
sup
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, all without guidance. All it would know is where it has to go, but how it gets there it would have to be able to figure out on its own (avoid obstacles on its own, etc).
It works just like a glider (wings and no propeller). By decreasing the buoyancy of the vehicle, it sinks and the downward drop of the vehicle is converted to forward motion by the wings (just like dropping a glider off a cliff). When the vehicle ascends, the same thing happens. The numbers in the article suggest a very modest glide slope of only 3.2:1. This means that each round trip to 3300 feet and back would provide 21120 feet (6.4 km) of forward travel. Do that 3 times a day, and you can make steady progress.
Changing buoyancy and gliding takes very little energy, much less than running a propeller, so the thing can run for a long time (about 300 days, according the the article).
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Thank God you caught that mistake and let us know! I was going to base the rest of my career and several deep-sea expeditions on the length of this robot, and if it weren't for your vigilance, I would've made some very fatal mistakes in my calculations. Thank you for saving my life! I am forever indebted to you.
Meanwhile, a man swims across the Atlantic ocean at 80km/day, and a woman rows through the Pacific at 110km/day.
And remember the fly-eating robot which crawls 5m/day. I bet I could do better.
I won't welcome our new UAV masters until one of them completes the International Aerial Robotics Competition.
from the site:
FreeHeel
The self-aware threat is now from the water!
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Q: Why did the robot cross the golf stream?
A: To get to the continental shelf on the other side!
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
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 on Li CSC batteries doesn't turn up much. What are they exactly?
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
How much coke do you think one of these things could carry?
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
'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
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
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!
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
According to the scheme, it's got movable ballast (the battery packs) which shift its balance and adjust pitch and roll. But how can it pitch down and still descend if the bladder is only on its tail?
As the bladder fills with water, it should start to sink tail-first -- the "PITCH" battery pack doesn't look like it can go fore enough of the robot's center to pitch it down, and the "ROLL" one can't be heavy enough to make it pitch, as that would prevent it from ascending head-first... I'm puzzled..
Thanks for the link! The answer to your question is a matter of densities. The bladder is only filled with water whereas the batteries are at least 2 times as dense as water (unless they are using lithium D cells), so their heavy weight counterbalances the water in the bladder.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
..if this was a Mars Rover?
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...
Yes, the triangle aliens would be bad, but equally concerning is if the robot accidentally surfaces in Jamaica and gets bogged down with spliffs. Ya-mon that trench is deeeeeep, cin.
So when are coke smugglers going to realize they can build an army of robotic fish to smuggle their stuff.
meh
Live Data is updated after each dive.
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 we track.
I, for one, welcome...ah fuck it.
The vehicle has an amazing fuel efficiency!
The batteries have a capacity of 13 MJ. That is the energy content of about 300g of gasoline (for 45MJ/kg).
But the vehicle has a range of 4700km!
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 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!
In Soviet Russia, Gulfstreams cross the water.
We're working on this as a vehicle for education... see website below. No recent updates, but we're drafting grant proposal. --dave
I for one welcome our Colombian overlords.
You should work for NASA. They appearantly don't have anyone capable of spotting errors when dealing with both metric and standard units.
I've been thinking it would be a wonderful way to smuggle drugs from South America into the US. Wonder how long it'll take a drug lord to find an engineer.
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
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
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It's a right turn when you get to the other side...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I've often wondered how difficult it would be awesome if you think so, perhaps you should do it, because security answers are the fleshy edges of the number of jobs because of the solar system. Gentoo is slow, gentoo is orange. The latter is completely different, but it would be slow but if nothing breaks it could in theory cross huge distances.
A katana was a great competition! 20K for the first man to step on warm dog shit, and suffer while they do, but that sucks; i would rather have beauty than brains because she knows that the point of no return has not yet been passed.
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.
/ 2002214428_sub21.html/
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