[tt] [silk] "Green" robot self-propels through sea

[Eugen Leitl]

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From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay at pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:57:55 +0530
To: silklist at lists.hserus.net
Subject: [silk] "Green" robot self-propels through sea
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http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0739211620080207

"Green" robot self-propels through sea
Thu Feb 7, 2008 5:35pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A seagoing glider that uses heat energy from the 
ocean to propel itself is the first "green" robot to explore the 
undersea environment, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said the glider had crisscrossed the 13,000-feet-(4,000-meter-)deep 
Virgin Islands Basin between St. Thomas and St. Croix more than 20 times 
since it was launched in December.

And it could keep going on its own for another six months, the team at 
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Webb Research Corporation 
in Falmouth, Massachusetts, predicted.

"Gliders can be put to work on tasks that humans wouldn't want to do or 
cannot do because of time and cost concerns," Dave Fratantoni of Woods 
Hole said. "They can work around the clock in all weather conditions."

Such robots can carry sensors to measure temperature, salinity and 
biological productivity.

They usually surface from time to time to fix their positions using the 
Global Positioning System and to communicate via Iridium satellite to a 
laboratory.

Most gliders rely on battery-powered motors and mechanical pumps, the 
researchers said. This one draws its energy from the differences in 
temperature between warm surface waters and the colder, deeper layers of 
the ocean.

"We are tapping a virtually unlimited energy source for propulsion," 
Fratantoni said.

He said data collected by the glider would help researchers understand 
how eddies in the region affect ocean circulation and move around the 
larvae of fish as well as pollutants.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen)


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((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

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