Underwater glider breaks world record
Undersea robotics expert, ACSA, has concluded a record breaking mission with its SeaExplorer underwater glider in conjunction with the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV) oat the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC).
The mission objective was to evaluate the endurance of its first glider equipped with Lio-Ion rechargeable batteries while performing several trips between France and Corsica Island.
Dr Hervé Claustre, CNRS, said: “The SeaExplorer glider has acquired a wealth of high resolution data along its transects and the results will be presented by LOV at the Ocean Science Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, in February 2014.”
He added that this glider is different from other unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) because most on the market are powered by alkaline or primary lithium.Lio-Ion is a green technology because it has a low impact on the environment thanks to the batteries only needing to be replaced every ten years.
During the 60 day mission the glider travelled 1183km on a single battery charge averaging a speed of 0.5 knots, setting both a duration and speed record for a UUV.
SeaExplorer can navigate at sea for months gathering subsea data that can be transmitted periodically via satellite back to a ground station. It can be used for multiple missions in order to get an accurate picture of subsea and surface layers including environmental assessments.
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