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Underwater Robot Powered By Ocean's Thermal Energy
separsons writes "A team of scientists recently created the world's first underwater robotic vehicle powered entirely by renewable ocean thermal energy. Researchers from NASA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the US Navy developed Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC), an autonomous robot that runs on a thermal recharging engine. The engine derives power from the natural temperature differences found at varying ocean depths. SOLO-TREC produces about 1.7 watts of power each dive, enough to juice the robot's science instruments, GPS receiver, communication device, and buoyancy control pump. SOLO-TREC is poised to revolutionize ocean monitoring; previous robots could spend only a limited amount of time underwater because of depleting power sources. SOLO-TREC can stay beneath the surface of the waves for indefinite amounts of time. Based on SOLO-TREC's success, NASA and the US Navy plan to incorporate thermal recharging engines in next-generation submersibles."
DeLoreans are submersible, but I don't think they ever make it back to the surface, so you'd better hit your 88 MPH on the way down.
FTFA, it's 1.7 Watt-Hours (6100 Joules) generated, rather than 1.7 watts. It's still peanuts though really.
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I wonder...with the temperatures in the deep quite predictable, likewise at the surface in targeted time period and location, perhaps underwater glider with buoyancy control via passive mass having "weird" thermal expansion properties would be also feasible? Who knows if worthwhile though, with less precision and need for control pump anyway, for surfacing...
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FTFA, it's 1.7 Watt-Hours (6100 Joules) generated, rather than 1.7 watts. It's still peanuts though really.
It true that 1.7 Watt Hours isn't much, but it doesn't need to be a lot, it just needs to be enough.
How hard can it be to not mess up units while talking about energy and power?
How far can a 80 mph car go?
Can this robot hold a position, or return to a position upon surfacing and learning its position? Or is at the mercies of the ocean currents as to where it ends up?
John
Hm? Underwater GPS receiver? I am quite sure that the readio signals from the satellites do not pass through water....
Did I miss something?
... Intel announces plans to ship systems equipped with an experimental 48-core CPU ... . According to Sean Koehl, technology evangelist with Intel Labs, the chip only draws between 25 and 125 Watts
Well, I guess this new sub won't have this Intel 48-core Gigantium Inside.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I don't recall hearing about this technique for producing energy before. I wonder how useful it would be to make a similar device to produce energy and send it back up...
I'm puzzled over the "per dive" part of this. this seems to imply it's that downward dive itself that is some how producing the energy. that is to say this energy is not continuously produced but would require another dive cycle to produce. So it' can't stay down. perhaps it can cycles dives autonomously?
And how is this power produced. I'm going to guess what is happening is that it comes up and warms up till it's core temperature is at the ambient surface temperature. Then it drops like a rock, and uses the heat differential between the core and the cold water to drive some thermo electric engine in reverse. perhaps they toss in some phase change material to extend the thermal capacity.
or is it something different?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
We did run this story on April 07, 2010 (link is here: http://www.global-adventures.us/2010/04/07/underwater-robot/). Temperatures at depth are not always easy to predict since they are influenced by many factors including ocean currents, light penetration (i.e. algae bloom). If it's made available, this technology will allow scientists to cover larger bodies of water, gain more data and over time a better understanding of whats going on in our Oceans.
My SWAG ( Sonarmans Wild Ass Guess) is that it has to repeatedly move up and down through the water column. One you are past the main thermocline the ocean is a pretty constant temp. It might be based on sterling or something like that.
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What about Rutgers glider, Atlantic Glider, that has already crossed the Atlantic ocean? If I'm not mistaken it is completely powered by the thermal difference between the surface of the ocean and deeper water as well. http://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/atlantic/
Can this robot hold a position, or return to a position upon surfacing and learning its position? Or is at the mercies of the ocean currents as to where it ends up?
No, it can't. It can adjust its depth; that's all.
Compare the Wave Glider, from Liquid Robotics. This is a privately funded product. It has two parts, a surface "floater" that looks like a surfboard, and a tethered "glider", which hangs below it, about 10m underwater. Wave action on the floater pulls the glider up, and gravity brings it down. Spring-loaded ailerons move the glider forward, powered by the wave motion, and it tows the floater. A rudder on the glider allows steering. The floater has solar panels, a GPS, and an Iridium satellite data link.
The Wave Glider is not only autonomous and self-powered, but can make long trips under control. First they sent one all the way around the Big Island in Hawaii. Worked fine. Then they sent it from Hawaii to California. This took a while; it averages around 1 knot; more in storms, less in calm weather. In storms, the floater is pulled through waves, like a surfboard, and comes out unharmed. They picked it up in Monterey Bay, saw that it was in good condition, and sent it back out again. They parked it in Monterey Bay for a while, circling in a 50 meter circle. Then they sent it back out again on an trip to Alaska and back.
The Wave Glider generally stays within about 50m of its programmed course. The Coast Guard treats it as "floating debris", and it doesn't show lights. If something hits it, it's like running over a surfboard. The control center on shore (a laptop with an Iridium phone) gets ship tracking data, and they guide the Wave Gliders out of the way of large ships.
And how is this power produced. I'm going to guess what is happening is that it comes up and warms up till it's core temperature is at the ambient surface temperature. Then it drops like a rock, and uses the heat differential between the core and the cold water to drive some thermo electric engine in reverse. perhaps they toss in some phase change material to extend the thermal capacity.
or is it something different?
Why not ask the people who built it? From http://solo-trec.jpl.nasa.gov/SOLO-TREC/ :
I'd like to add that JPL is of course the place to go to if you need to run gizmos for a long time on almost-no-energy input, reliably, in rather hostile environments. I mean - the Voyagers are still sending data home, 30+ years later , 100+ AU away and with a transmitter not much better than a modern cell phone...
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succinct. but the system is a phase change system, not a liquid density system.