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Autonomous Sea-Robot Survives Massive Typhoon

Posted by Unknown on from the ride-the-wave dept.

jfruh (300774) writes Liquid Robotics and its Wave Glider line of autonomous seafaring robots became famous when Java inventor James Gosling left Google to join the company. Now one of its robots has passed an impressive real-world test, shrugging off a monster typhoon in the South China Sea that inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars of damage on the region.

10 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Soylent News by stonedead · · Score: 2, Funny

    The red background for this story reminds me of soylent news during those dark days of beta.

  2. In other news ... by jamesl · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... a two liter Coke bottle survived a massive typhoon.

  3. Is this an achievement? by Zebai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I only one who doesn't think this is all that impressive? A manned ship surviving, yes, a stationary building surviving yes, but a unmanned sealed drone that has no problem being submerged in the water with nothing to collide against it without need to stay upright? I could achieve similar results as this drone by putting some gear in a steel container and letting throwing it out to sea. Its other purposes aside "shrugging" off a storm of any size should be trivial for such an object.

    1. Re:Is this an achievement? by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, it doesn't impress me but for different reasons.

      Surviving a typhoon on the surface is none trivial for any vessel of any size. Waves are no fun at all during a storm of that size. I think you underestimate how well the equipment in the steel container would have to be hardened. Its not unusual to suddenly fall a hundred feet or more, only to smack into water which is rapidly raising as you run into it. Imagine repeatedly being dropped from 100 feet or more into a pool for hours on end. Thats what being in a hurricane is like. Unless you're an experience engineer, I doubt you'd make something that survived without several tries.

      On the other hand, for a submersible? Meh, not impressive. Dive below and it gets calm fairly quickly. The surface waves of a storm like that don't have that great of an effect on the ocean bottom at sufficient depth. The direct effects of the waves themselves end at about one half the wave length below the wave troughs. Indirect effects are probably worse though, and those can extend down to 300-400 feet.

      If the water is deep enough and the USV can dive deep enough, its trivial to wait it out. A submarine for instance has little fear of a hurricane unless its stuck trying to get out of port because they waited too long.

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    2. Re:Is this an achievement? by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      No-one that knows anything about mechanics would be impressed. It would be pretty sad if any sort of weather could hard your under-water RC boat. Even Babies have survived rides in Tornadoes after all.

    3. Re:Is this an achievement? by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      If the water is deep enough and the USV can dive deep enough, its trivial to wait it out. A submarine for instance has little fear of a hurricane unless its stuck trying to get out of port because they waited too long.

      Except, the difference in this case is this thing is at the surface.

      Which means it couldn't dive to wait it out.

      It's submerged, but only a little, and it has a mast sticking out of the water.

      So, how trivial is it to ride this out when you're barely under the water? It seems less so.

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  4. It's not submerged... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Robotics
    "The Wave Glider is composed of two parts: the float is roughly the size and shape of a surfboard and stays at the surface; the sub has wings and hangs 6 meters below on an umbilical tether. Because of the separation, the float experiences more wave motion than does the sub. This difference allows wave energy to be harvested to produce forward thrust."

    If the unit were totally submerged a couple of hundred feet then, yes, a typhoon going by overhead would be nothing to worry about. But according to the wiki that's not the case...I'm surprised the sub and the float didn't get pulled apart.

  5. Re:big deal by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2, Funny

    But this was a floating metal tube containing electronics and running software as fragile as Java.

  6. Re:big deal by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

    No no no .. if software was physically tangible; the weight of the java code would have made the thing sink to the ocean floor -- and possibly into the earth's core.

  7. The photo does not do it justice, and also by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 2

    The WaveGlider when deployed does not look like the photo. This is the stowed configuration, which is how it is put into the water. They haven't actually deployed it yet.

    The top surfboard-y part floats. The bottom part with the vanes is a ways below it, and isn't buoyant. (The motive power comes from the fact that the vanes get pulled up and down by the buoyant part -- the distance is necessary for it to work.)

    So, the fact that the buoyant and dense parts didn't separate, and their connecting cables didn't snap or get snarled and rendered useless is kinda impressive. At least to me.

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