Roger Hine, inventor of the Wave Glider discusses how these small, scalable,
wave-powered robots are enabling the "Blue Economy."
From The Economist by Roger Hine
On a planet mostly covered by water, there is plenty of dull, dirty
and dangerous work to be done at sea, but robotics provides breakthrough
capabilities that will transform how humans interact with the ocean.
New technical capabilities and increasing market demand have converged
to kick off an era of growth in autonomous, unmanned systems—an
important component of the blue economy’s infrastructure.
Picture a small ocean robot swimming deep beneath the sea.
It could
be searching, mapping, servicing equipment, or performing any number of
other activities that we take for granted while living on the 28% of the
planet that is
not covered in water.
This robot works in a
hostile environment.
Saltwater can short-circuit electronics and corrode
metal, and deep under the ocean, water exerts a crushing pressure of
tonnes per square inch.
Closer to the surface, there are waves, wind and
extreme weather.
Sharks bite things to see if they’re edible, and algae
and barnacles grow wherever they can, fouling mechanisms and sensors.
The field of ocean robotics is decades old and, thanks to steady
development and funding from organisations like the United States Office
of Naval Research and oceanographic research labs around the world,
many of the challenges it presents now have solutions.
Energy,
communications and market development have all been holding back the
widespread adoption of ocean robotics.
Fortunately, there’s now good
news on all these fronts.
The SHARC unmanned surface vehicle detected, reported, and tracked a manned submarine during the Unmanned Warrior exercise off the coast of Scotland in October 2016.
Energy is the key to autonomy
Robotic autonomy isn’t just about artificial intelligence.
For ocean
systems, energy is the first constraint on how independent a robot can
be.
The most common robotic systems in the marine industry are remotely
operated vehicles (ROVs) that are powered through a tether connected to a
ship.
Famously, several ROVs were deployed a mile deep to stop the oil
gushing from the ocean floor after the catastrophic failure of the
Deepwater Horizon rig.
These ROVs, while often extremely sophisticated,
are an extension of highly trained human crews living and working on
specialised ships.
Since ship operations are expensive, ship-based robot
operations are even more expensive.
Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) achieve great agility and
flexibility by eliminating the ROV’s tether, cutting the cord to the
support ship.
But this means that UUVs must rely purely on stored
energy; their limited battery capacity constrains their range and the
power available for sensors.
Most UUVs are deployed from ships and
operated in a similar way to ROVs.
Improved battery technology, combined with low-power sensors and
processors, is leading to rapid advances in the efficacy of long-range
UUVs.
Buoyancy gliders, a type of UUV, use hyper-efficient propulsion to
spend months at sea and operate in a way that is truly unmanned—with no
ship in sight.
At the surface of the ocean, a newer class of autonomous ocean
vehicles called unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) has emerged.
Harvesting
energy from wind, waves and the sun, USVs such as Liquid Robotics’ Wave
Gliders convert natural energy to power propulsion, sensor payloads and
communication devices.
Boeing’s latest unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) Echo Voyager.
The 51-foot-long vehicle is the latest innovation in Boeing’s UUV family, joining the 32-foot Echo Seeker and the 18-foot Echo Ranger.
Robots are teaming up
The communications network
for ocean robots is comprised
of ocean robots, which are now being deployed in teams above, below and on the surface of the ocean.
Radio waves and light don’t propagate through the ocean like they do
through the atmosphere.
Just a few centimetres of saltwater is enough to
block radio and GPS signals.
Sound, on the other hand, travels enormous
distances underwater.
Robots at the surface, equipped with acoustic
modems and satellite links, are being used to extend communications and
positioning services to a wide variety of subsea devices, including
sea-floor sensors and UUVs.
In combined deployments, aerial drones with optical sensors and
surface robots with acoustic sensors co-operate to extend communication
ranges and provide a persistent and agile monitoring system.
A
system-of-systems approach enables real-time, actionable updates for
early detection, warning and monitoring.
Paint the Target (Liquid Robotics promotional video)
Networked robots aren’t just a product: they’re a platform
This network of robots will become more capable and valuable as it
grows.
Economies of scale mean that the more robots you build, the less
each one costs.
Without the need for fuel and human labour, operating
costs can be very low.
Reliability also improves with numbers, for each
individual robot but also as the result of deploying slightly more
robots than are necessary to complete a job.
All this leads to a
virtuous cycle of expanding utility and reduced costs as adoption grows.
The network effect also applies to a growing, global ecosystem of
sensor developers, platform manufacturers and integrators who provide
creative solutions to diverse market needs in security, offshore
industry, science and environmental assessment.
Today, ocean robotics
are in the same position as the iPhone was when Apple created it as a
platform on which others would innovate and build—applications are at a
nascent stage.
This is changing as the underlying technology gains
greater capabilities and is produced in greater volume.
It’s an exciting
time that will see a new industry of ocean application developers
emerge.
The digital ocean will underpin the blue economy
Imagine an ocean where networks of sensors, manned and unmanned
systems, and satellites are connected to give us instant, affordable
access to information.
This is the vision for the digital ocean.
It’s
not science fiction: it’s a prerequisite for more-effective ocean
preservation and economic expansion for the blue economy.
The networked ocean will deliver real-time seismic warnings and more
accurate hurricane and cyclone forecasts that will help save lives and
economies.
It will help expose illegal, unregulated and unreported
fishing (IUU), and trafficking in drugs and people.
Robots already help
research, measure, and monitor precious marine ecologies.
In the digital
ocean, the insights we gain will foster new scientific discoveries, new
job opportunities and new economic growth.
In science fiction, robots don’t run out of power and can communicate
from seemingly anywhere.
In reality, powering devices and networking
their data takes a lot of effort.
But as these issues are addressed and
the market matures, the opportunity for autonomous ocean devices is
enormous.
Ocean robotics is at an inflection point where it is ready to
enable a safer, sustainable digital ocean.
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