Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Spray: First Underwater Autonomous Vehicle To Cross Gulf Stream
A small self-propelled ocean glider named Spray is the first underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV) to cross the Gulf Stream underwater.
(From Spray Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
The six-foot-long glider was launched from a point about 100 miles south of Nantucket Island, Mass. on September 11 of this year. It traveled slowly at an average speed of about 12 miles per day and was recovered last week just north of Bermuda. It has no outside moving parts - at all. It moves forward by using battery-powered hydraulic pumps to vary its air volume by a few hundred cubic centimeters (using oil-filled bladders); this generates the buoyancy changes that power its forward gliding (see path diagram below).
(From Spray Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
The batteries also power on-board instruments to measure temperature, salinity, pressure and the turbidity of the water (a measure that relates to biological productivity). Spray records its surface position at each point; it rolls 90 degrees to allow the GPS antenna embedded in the right wingtip to gather that data. Every seven hours it spends fifteen minutes on the surface to send data back to scientists Breck Owens from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Russ Davis and Jeff Sherman of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, using the satellite phone in its left wing.
(From Spray Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
Spray is capable of maintaining its course autonomously, but operators on shore can send new commands to change course or alter the data gathering parameters at any time. "The key," said Davis, "is that Spray can stay at sea for months at relatively low cost, allowing us to observe large-scale changes under the ocean surface that might otherwise go unobserved."
Spray has a potential range of up to 3,500 miles - it could someday cross the Atlantic Ocean or explore other ocean basins. "We envision having fleets of gliders in operation in a few years," Owens said. "It could change the very nature of the kinds of questions we can ask about how the ocean works."
Future missions planned for 2005 include a round trip from Woods Hole, Mass to Bermuda; an Acoustic Doppler current Profiler will be used to give vertical profiles of current speed and velocity. Other sensors could be added to measure dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, alkalinity and nutrients in the ocean water.
"Oceanographic gliders are now at the stage similar to the start of aviation," Sherman said. Today's autonomous buoyancy-driven vehicles owe their existence to a visionary article published in 1989 by Henry Stommel.
Technovelgy readers may recall a recent story about the Subjugator underwater robot, a student-built competitive robot that resembled the Flying Sub from the popular 1960's science fiction show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Read more about spray at Spray Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and Spray home page.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/6/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 3 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...' - David C. Cooke, 1939.
Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin
'...tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent, 1934.
Finger Sensors For Robot Hands
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
A Vacuum With An Arm - Engineers Create Heinlein's Hired Girl Robot
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...' - Robert Heinlein, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Wearable Energy Harvester
'... he had tightened the chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing.'
Drones Participate In Buddhist Rites
'...a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.'
Anna Indiana AI Singer-Songwriter
'She is a personality-construct, a congeries of software agents'
Video Manicuring ala Schismatrix
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time'
'Feel the AGI' OpenAI Leader Now OpenWorship
'And are all the people willing to be governed by a machine?'
NASA Tests Prototype Europa Lander
Why have legs if they don't walk around?
Tailsitter Drone Aircraft For SAR
'...it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair.'
Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office
'It's an old model,' Rawlins said. 'I'm not sure what to do.'
Mika The Robot-Boss
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...'
Yamaha Motoroid 2 No Handlebars Self-Balancing Motorcycle
'He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace...'
San Francisco Autobus
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street...'
Should Your Car Decide If You Can Drive?
'Okay. Maybe the car was right...'
Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79
'the peeper did not operate by virtue of its machinery alone, but by the reaction of the brain and the body of its user...'
Honda UNI-ONE Hands-Free Wheelchair Follows 100 Year-Old Design
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed...'
EBS-260 Handjet Free Hand Dot Matrix Printer
'McKie held a chalf-memory stick over the dusted surface.'
Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin
'...tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
