Waveguide

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A wave glider when inserted into the water

A Liquid Robotics ( English wave glider ) is an unmanned vessel that supplies the power for locomotion from water waves wins.

functionality

The wave glider is made up of two interconnected parts: The upper part floats on the water and is moved more or less intensively up and down by the swell . The lower part, about seven meters under water, is also moved up and down. This up and down movement is converted into a forward movement by movable wings attached to the lower part. The lower part thus pulls the upper part forward. Optional solar cells attached to the upper part provide electrical energy that can be used both to support locomotion and for other purposes.

At the end of 2012, the wave glider “Papa Mau” completed a more than a year long Pacific crossing from San Francisco to the east coast of Australia.

Areas of application

Waveguides are mostly used on the high seas for data acquisition and forwarding, where other platforms such as ships or islands are not available or only available temporarily. Wave gliders are used in particular by research institutes and oil companies as well as by armed forces and the like. a. used for military reconnaissance ( SHARC - Sensor Hosting Autonomous Remote Craft ). For example, the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel uses waveguides to measure chemical, physical and biological parameters of seawater and as a data transfer platform for a system installed off the coast of Chile to measure earthquakes . Since September 2016, a wave glider swimming in the European Arctic Ocean has been sending aircraft position data to the Flightradar24 web service .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Energy Harvesting Ocean Robot - How It Works. Liquid Robotics, accessed September 12, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Christian Heinrich: Robotics: The wave glider . In: Die Zeit , No. 32/2013
  3. ↑ Autonomous robot successfully crosses the Pacific. In: pressetext.com. December 6, 2012, accessed September 12, 2016 .
  4. ^ Drones take to sea as Navy aims to tap tech. In: The Stars and Stripes . August 2016, accessed on September 21, 2016 .
  5. ^ SHARC Wave Glider. In: auvac.org. Retrieved September 21, 2016 .
  6. ↑ A surfboard for science. Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel , September 24, 2014, accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Kiel researchers get to the bottom of earthquakes. ndr.de , December 13, 2015, accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  8. ↑ New ways in earthquake research. Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel , November 24, 2015, accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Setting Sail for Global Coverage - Flightradar24 ADS-B Receivers On-board a Surface Ocean Robot. Flightradar24 AB, September 6, 2016, accessed on September 12, 2016 (English).