Slashdot Mirror
Swimming Robot Reaches Australia After Record-Breaking Trip
SternisheFan writes "A self-controlled swimming robot has completed a journey from San Francisco to Australia. The record-breaking 9,000 nautical mile (16,668km) trip took the PacX Wave Glider just over a year to achieve. Liquid Robotics, the U.S. company behind the project, collected data about the Pacific Ocean's temperature, salinity and ecosystem from the drone. The company said its success demonstrated that such technology could 'survive the high seas.' The robot is called Papa Mau in honor of the late Micronesian navigator Pius 'Mau' Piailug, who had a reputation for finding ways to navigate the seas without using traditional equipment. 'During Papa Mau's journey, [it] weathered gale-force storms, fended off sharks, spent more than 365 days at sea, skirted around the Great Barrier Reef, and finally battled and surfed the east Australian current to reach his final destination in Hervey Bay, near Bundaberg, Queensland,' the company said in a statement. Some of the data it gathered about the abundance of phytoplankton -plant-like organisms that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and provide food for other sea life -could already be monitored by satellite. However, the company suggested that its equipment offered more detail, providing a useful tool for climate model scientists."
Not another illegal arrival from overseas, we get enough of those already! :-)
Swimming is a new way to do it though, most use boats...
just FYI so that you non-aussies start hearing it wrong in your heads: Hervey bay is pronounced "Harvie" like "Barbie" but with a 'v'.
taught the robot to dog paddle....
he realized he'd forgotten his laptop computer, and would have to swim back.
How do it do this?
Hey robot f*ck off we're full!
STRAYA C*NT
..as a good spot for a robot prison colony.
Did anyone check that white powder in the ballast?
http://phanmemtiger.com ti sao li nh th
I mean, like, this is important dude... is it, like tubular? or just hella good?
Or are we talking central valley California (which isn't much different than Oklahoma, it turns out).. say you were from Erldale ( a bit north of Bakersfield)
Is it "all-mond" or "aa - mond"?
Do you drive on "the 405 freeway to Santa Monica" or "take 580 to Livermore"
What about the characteristic "caught"/"cot" distinction?
I like that. It is the classiest way of saying 'I'll pronounce it however I want. Now fuck off.'
Technically that is known as the humpty dumpty defense. Having said that I'm also an Aussie and agree with the OP on the pronounciation of an Australian place name, because we are Aussies we may have local knowledge that you lack, so it would be unfair to classify the GP's post as a humpty dumpty defense.
A much better translation would be "Fuck off tourist".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Of course, there was some other distracting lyrics about another woman named Elvira, too.
(if you didn't have to see the video to get that joke, you're getting gray like me!)
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
They didn't even mention the message that they found on a recorder in the robot. It said "I have been on a deserted island....the putt breaks to the right....Sweep back and forth, back and forth...I was stranded...This is the way we wash our clothes..." Apparently, it was supposed to say "I have been on a deserted island...with seven castaways of The Minnow. ..They are alive and well and...." but the dopey first mate put a rabbits foot into the robot for luck and it demagnetized the tape!
So in a few years they will have a better life style, quality of life, than where they came from.
Anyway heres a written report in the Sydney morning herald.
Hooly-Dooly! , tha Yanks made a fucking robot that swam the pacific. The little bugger was completely nackered but our prime meathead was dressed to the 9's in her fruit and veg to g'day the little battler and crack a tinny.
"Yous went like a dingo on a flat rock to get ere from woop woop. When they got on the blower to tell me I was like turn it up! But they said they were fair dinkem. No pigs bum on that"
"No time for silly buggers, chuck a u-ee and tell em we are shouting this round" As she chucked her empty tinny on to the little bewdie and it racked off to yank land.
James Gosling, of Java, Display Postscript, Gosling Emacs, and other fames is the chief software architect an Liquid Robotics.
This is another Liquid Robotics Wave Glider. It's a simple, clever propulsion idea, which is well-explained on the web site. The only powered mechanical part is a rudder. A GPS provides position, solar panels provide power for the electronics, and an Iridium satellite link provides command and control. It's about the size of a surfboard.
Performance is surprisingly good. Wave gliders have been sent from Hawaii to California, then up to Alaska and back. It can generally stay within 50 meters of the desired track. It's too small and light to hurt anything operating in open ocean. The Coast Guard classifies it as "floating debris", so it doesn't have to show lights.
It's also useful when you simply want to park an instrument package in one location. It's much easier than anchoring a buoy in deep water. They had one in Monterey Bay for months, making small circles to stay in one area.
What's so special about this robot? It doesn't look human at all, more like some boat propeller.
"but one of them has suffered damage and has been diverted to Hawaii for repair" thus it can be remotely controlled?
sag
I am sure it involves the line "boy are my arms tired!"
Some sources are reporting that the whole way there the robot kept saying "P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!!"
Light cup, beer drink, thin so chain, neck turtle fat, man I won't say it again