Wave Gliders: Robots Cruising the Oceans

[mbianka]

Birds will love these nice floating ocean going rest stations too!

[sdowney717]

Birds will love these nice floating ocean going rest stations too!

yeah, they will poop all over it and the solar cells will quit working and then it will just float around like a bit of ocean debris.
Perhaps seals will sit on it.

I wonder what their real life system losses are.

[Sabbatical II]

If we find an "abandoned" vessel isn't it finders keepers as far as salvage rights go?

Greg

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Eleebana

If we find an "abandoned" vessel isn't it finders keepers as far as salvage rights go?

Greg

I think in international waters only, so you might have to tow it out past the 5 mile limit!

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Oh boy! A free solar panel.

My thought exactly.

[FSMike]

Is control via satellite equivalent to having a captain on board, or is this a vessel "not under command"? The legal eagles should have fun deciding what configuration of nav lights are required.
Who's responsible for standing watch?

[Sailor g]

Oh yeah. Some more garbage floating and
having to watch out to not run over.

[barnakiel]

Doh! Good comment on the birds! Can't see any wipers there ... ;-)

Knowing how funny boobies and seagulls can be I would not be surprised to see some solar powered floating nests any time soon ;-)))

b.

[David M]

When deploying drifters and other similar instruments like this one, it is assumed a certain percentage will never be seen again. So more are deployed than the minimum needed in order to complete the study. This is especially true if the data collected while in the field cannot be downloaded on a frequent basis.

I would think that if the outer shell of this drifter is a soft plastic like polyethylene or has a closed cell foam fender that surrounds it that the chance of damage to a boat would be next to nothing.

The only thing I would do different is to make it an ocean blue color so it is less likely to be spotted and plucked out of the water by a passing boat. It could be recovered easily enough by its reported GPS position. I would probably not have AIS on it. Mariners would be too curious about an AIS contact with no radar return. I would also put up wire spikes so birds cannot poop on the solar cell.

I have deployed drifters that measure current and other data on SF Bay plenty of times and boaters are understandably super curious what these yellow spheres with an antenna sticking up are. Going stealthy is probably the more likely way for this to work.