{"id":2589,"date":"2009-08-29T18:23:57","date_gmt":"2009-08-30T02:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2009-08-29T18:23:57","modified_gmt":"2009-08-30T02:23:57","slug":"how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Data-Gathering Ocean Robot was Born"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thayer Walker is a San Francisco-based freelance writer, who first reported on development of the Wave Glider for <\/em>The New York Times<\/a>. His radio segment for Climate Watch,<\/em> was produced by Nathanael Johnson and <\/em>is scheduled to air Monday, 8\/31 on KQED’s <\/em>The California Report<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Red Flash in the Sunset<\/p>\n

By Thayer Walker<\/p>\n

A Silicon Valley engineering firm called Liquid Robotics<\/a> recently launched a new device called a Wave Glider off the California coast. It’s the latest and perhaps, the most ingenious design in the growing network of “autonomous ocean samplers,”<\/a> which is to say sea-going science robots. The glider is a sensor-carrying platform powered entirely by wave energy and it has the potential to collect an enormous amount of data about the ocean, which in turn will give scientists a better understanding of climate change.<\/p>\n

\""Red
"Red Flash" at sea. Photo: Liquid Robotics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jim Bellingham, Chief Technologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute<\/a>, calls the device a \u201ctransformational development\u201d in the field of ocean science and technology, but when the inventors came up with the idea they weren\u2019t trying to revolutionize marine studies, they were trying to eavesdrop on humpback whales.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Joe Rizzi, the chairman of Liquid Robotics, wanted to listen to the song of humpback whales off the coast of his home in Puako, Hawaii. He anchored a hydrophone near the shore, but instead of picking up whale song he heard the sound of frying bacon. Snapping shrimp, a small crustacean that uses its powerful claw to generate sound blasts that stuns its prey, had drowned out the call of the whales.<\/p>\n

When Rizzi moved the hydrophones into deeper water he captured clear whale sounds, but kept losing the moored devices to rough seas. \u201cThe difficulty,\u201d says Rizzi \u201cwas holding a hydrophone anchored in 600 feet of water during winter storms.\u201d Rizzi realized that to keep a hydrophone stationary, he would need a powered device. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to do that with a battery and a motor and a solar panel,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe amount of power to hold station in a 60 mile per hour wind and 10 foot waves is thousands of watts. We recognized that it\u2019s an energy problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rizzi presented the problem to Liquid Robotics CEO Roger Hine, who quickly came up with a design, and the Wave Glider was born.\u00a0 \u201cWe weren\u2019t sitting around thinking this thing would have a lot of scientific uses,\u201d says Rizzi, \u201cbut as it turns out, there are a lot more uses for this device than just listening to whales.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Wave Glider's passive propulsion system harnesses the up-and-down motion of sea swells for locomotion. Diagram: Liquid Robotics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may look like a surfboard for solar geeks but there’s much more here than meets the eye. Red Flash could spend up to a year gathering important ocean data, using only the motion of the ocean for propulsion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[181,401,579],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ecosystems","tag-oceans","tag-technology"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nHow a Data-Gathering Ocean Robot was Born | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Data-Gathering Ocean Robot was Born | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It may look like a surfboard for solar geeks but there's much more here than meets the eye. Red Flash could spend up to a year gathering important ocean data, using only the motion of the ocean for propulsion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-30T02:23:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2009\/08\/red-flash_0092_blog.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@voxterra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/\",\"name\":\"How a Data-Gathering Ocean Robot was Born | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-30T02:23:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-08-30T02:23:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2009\/08\/29\/how-a-data-gathering-ocean-robot-was-born\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How a Data-Gathering Ocean Robot was Born\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\",\"name\":\"Craig Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/dd8f4f4f978df3faac9db4c510939ea0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Miller\"},\"description\":\"Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. 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