Thursday, April 18, 2013

SV3 - the floating robot of the following generation from the Liquid Robotics company Wave Glider series

Робот SV3   In December of last year the Liquid Robotics company gained wide popularity thanks to its floating Wave Glider robots which in the autonomous made swimming from San Francisco to Australia, having established a world record of the longest distance passed by the robot of any type. The group of four robots one of which successfully reached Australia took part in a record heat of Wave Glider robots, the second withdrew for technical reasons, and two more robots continue now movement towards coast of Japan. And recently the Liquid Robotics company presented the SV3 robot - the new robot of the following generation of the Wave Glider series.
  Besides a record heat through the Pacific Ocean, the main model of "an underwater glider" Wave Glider which has received the name SV2, is used by a set of research and other organizations worldwide. From the moment of emergence in 2009 of the first SV2 robot the Liquid Robotics company made about 200 such robots a third from which constantly is in swimming. Thus, in certain cases SV2 robots use big groups till 10-20 robots at the same time.
   The new SV3 robot, as well as the SV2 robot, consists of the connected among themselves surface and underwater parts. The surface part of the new SV3 robot reminds now a surfboard in which are located a set of the sensors, allowing to collect scientific oceanographic data, such as concentration of salts, water temperature, characteristics of waves, concentration of the oxygen dissolved in water and other data. From above also tiny meteorological station collecting meteorological data is established to surface part. All electronic the equipment, including above-mentioned sensors, the navigation system on the basis of GPS, the computer and reception передающаяя the equipment receive a food from the solar batteries located on a surface of "surfboard".
Роботы SV3 и SV2
    The SV3 robot uses just the same principle of movement, as well as the SV2 robot. It moves at the expense of underwater part, "an underwater glider" which, using energy of currents and waves, moves forward itself and pulls for itself surface part. The SV3 robot has length of 2.9 meters and can bear on itself a payload, weighing up to 45 kilograms while the 2.1-meter SV2 robot could bear only 18 kilograms of freight. Surface area of wings of underwater part of the SV3 robot is more, than at underwater part SV2, and solar batteries due to bigger efficiency and the area develop three times more energy, than SV2 robot batteries. All this together means that the SV3 robot can overcome bigger distance, remain in the sea more long, ensure functioning of bigger number of sensors and other equipment, than than his predecessor.
    The Sami the interesting is that the SV3 robot received the rowing screw put in action by the electric motor. This engine receiving energy from solar and storage batteries, turns on only when the robot needs additional draft when it faces a cross-current when it is required to increase at any cost the speed of its movement or sharply to change the movement direction.
   The computer control system for the SV3 robot underwent big modernization. Now it the computer on the basis of the Linux operating system which has ample opportunities on collecting, processing, storage and data transmission operates. The robot itself is able to estimate now the data and first of all to transmit only those data which represent the greatest interest for researchers through the satellite.
   "Along with other new opportunities, ability of the new robot to collect oceanographic data more long time, to carry out their preliminary processing has to interest almost all our clients" - the president of the Liquid Robotics company Bill Vess (Bill Vass), - "And tells those who already has at itself(himself) robots of the previous generation of SV2, we can offer their modernization to the SV3 level".

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