Boat Moves Without an Engine Or Sails

coondoggie writes "Researchers say technology they have developed would let boats or small aquatic robots glide through the water without the need for an engine, sails or paddles. A University of Pittsburgh research team has designed a propulsion system that uses the natural surface tension that is present on the water's surface and an electric pulse to move the boat or robot, researchers said. The Pitt system has no moving parts and the low-energy electrode that emits the pulse could be powered by batteries, radio waves, or solar power, researchers said in a statement."

Comments

Is it the Red October?

[east coast]

*eom*

Re:Is it the Red October?

[Arker]

Err scratch that. Teach me to post in this heat.

Apparently it relies on surface tension and would not, therefore, be very useful on a submersible vehicle. :((

Might be nice for whale-watching and the like, at least. Engine noise scares off a lot of creatures that would otherwise be observable. But sailing ships are already quiet enough for that, so I'm not sure I see a real viable purpose for it at the moment.

Still, just as pure research, it's pretty cool.

Re:Is it the Red October?

[MooUK]

It's even lower energy!

Re:Is it the Red October?

[pato101]

If I recall correctly, surface tension forces only count to steady state (low velocity motions). Thus, this thing (the story one) only will work at moderate speeds (look at the video: there are no waves in the surface because of the low velocity motion, also means high efficiency). What you propose would generate strong motions, which would kill the tension surface forces.

Can't MHD already do this?

[bistromath007]

Sure, MHD drives that I know of are slow and run on superconductors, but that was back in the early 90's, they should be able to gin up something better by now.

Re:Can't MHD already do this?

[Anonymous Coward]

MHD: Magnetohydrodynamics, for those that don't remember obscure acronyms.

Better Article

[Selanit]

The New Scientist article on this topic is more informative. Among other things, it's got a video of the test mini-robot boat in action.

The water in the testing tank is very still -- there are few or no ripples. I wonder if the approach will actually work on, say, the ocean? If your propulsion system depends on steady contact with the water surface, waves are going to be a problem.

Re:Better Article

[YourExperiment]

Raising the rear end of a RORO ship or passenger cruiser a millimetre or two isn't going to have much of an effect, methinks.

RORORO your ship,
Gently down a slope,
Surface tension's far too weak,
The whole idea is broke.

Glittering diamond of hope *cough cough*

[Oricalchos]

Mother Nature called, she wants her gliding through the water patent back. Otherwise, it's neat. Innovation, even if it's copied from the nature, is welcome, especially in the years we have ahead of us. Just don't let it be another hoax.

primary school chemistry, anyone?

[arth1]

We made boats that moved by weakening the surface tension back in primary school.
Stick a piece of soap on the stern of a paper "boat", and it is propelled forward.

However, I can't see how the surface tension would be strong enough to drive a full sized boat at any speed. At best you're talking about a few millimetres elevation difference between the bow and stern, if the water is very salty and there's absolutely no wind or currents causing waves.

Boat moves without engine, paddles or sails

[MichaelTheDrummer]

commonly known as 'drifting'

Yes but..

[Reed Solomon]

How effective is it at killing Manatees, hobo's of the sea?

I refuse to use any sort of boat that doesn't maim or injure an endangered species. That's just the kind of forward thinking person I am.

Re:Oblig

[jd]

In this case, it should be "does it run in Linux". (The answer is no. The surface tension is too low. The kernel mailing list tension, on the other hand, would be perfect.)

"Boat Moves Without an Engine Or Sails"

[overcaffein8d]

Boat Moves Without an Engine Or Sails

the vikings fixed this problem long ago.

Re:Calm water

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Can this really work outside of a lab, where the water surface isn't like glass ?

It sure can work outside the lab. Check out the pics (search for figure 2 / figure 3) to see photos!

Re:Practical use?

[plasmacutter]

What are the advantages of this over using an engine or sail? Would it be friendlier to the environment, faster, or efficient?

Whatever the practical application, this is cool!

It's a brilliant way to ship your toothpicks overseas one at a time.

No, it is not even remotely similar.

[Jane Q. Public]

MHD consisted of the manipulation of a magnetic slurry inside a flexible structure (usually a tube), which in turn mechanically pushed water to the rear, thus achieving thrust.

Picture a large, straight colon, shoving diarrhea rearward via peristalsis: this was the basis of the MHD drive. It had nothing to do with surface tension, nor did it manipulate water directly via magnets or any other means.

Re:Calm water

[pato101]

AFAIK, no: the tension surface forces are only strong when the surface is in almost steady state.
I've forgotten most of these issues, but I recall solving tension surface problems, and there was a condition which meant almost steady state. The idea is that when the surface is in motion, convection and pressure terms become dominant over surface tension (the pressure gradients generated by convection are much larger than the pressure gradient due to surface tension).

Re:for real

[sapphire wyvern]

I think that's called the BoatTorrent protocol.

The rime of the ancient mariner (Iron Maiden)

[nomorecwrd]

There, calls the Mariner,
there comes a ship over the line
But how can she sail with no wind
in her sails and no tide.

(Based on "The rime of the ancient mariner" [1797 - 1798] by Samuel Taylor Coleridge )

Any other Iron Maiden fans out there in ./?
...
hello?

Re:Calm water

[MightyYar]

No, no, feed them. It's fun to watch the racists all going ape-shit right now.