Liquid Robotics’ Wave Glider

The ocean may make up bulk of our planet Earth, but human beings have barely scratched the surface when it comes to exploring them. The primary hold back has been the inability of the human body to stay submerged for long duration of time that detailed explorations would usually take. With the invention of underwater robots, this limitation has been addressed and we now know a lot more about what goes on under the surface of the water than we did before.

Liquid Robotics is a company which has pioneered this exploration. The star of the American marine robotics corporation is the Wave Glider. This is an unmanned surface vehicle which is powered by wave and solar energy. The robot uses the motion of waves to propel itself forward along the surface of the ocean. It literally can roam the oceans unhindered for periods of time as long as a year.

It can simultaneous gather and transmit the data that it collects from it’s various sensors. The company says that atmospheric and oceanographic sensors applicable to ocean and climate science, seismic sensors for earthquake and tsunami detection, and video cameras and acoustic sensors for security and marine environment protection purposes are all available  to the robot.

The energy harvesting and propulsion systems combined with a payload and sensor architecture makes the Wave Glider a persistent mobile gathering platform, as per Liquid Robotics. This is one science project that is continuously pushing the limits of our knowledge of the ocean.