Rutgers' underwater roboglider crosses the Atlantic, claims to be on business trip
The so-called Scarlet Knight robot has this week completed a 225-day journey from the shores of New Jersey to the sandy beaches of Baiona in Spain -- fittingly the same port Christopher Columbus returned to after his first visit to the Americas -- aided only by a battery, ocean currents and its innate intelligence. Built by Rutgers University, the youthful robotic trailblazer performed a number of data gathering tasks as it went along, furnishing climate change researchers with more info on temperature levels, water salination and currents within the Atlantic Ocean. Now that it has been handed back to the US, the machine will be put up on display in the Smithsonian, so if you want a peek at the future of globetrotting that'll be the place to go.






















Somehow looks like a Cruise Missile
@Sphynx
A cruise missile wrapped in peaceful scientific clothing...
It =is= a cruise torpedo.
THIS one just lacks a warhead.
@FI The warhead is lies. climate-gate proved that.
It's a green cruise missile that runs on batteries instead of a jetengine, it is a little slower yeah but it's green.
And the commercial one will be a hybrid no doubt, and create a fusion explosion at the target because that's greener.
Climate change researcher?? LMAO, yeah hope they dont lose this data.
@nastro Lose the data? You'll be lucky to ever see the data once the "scientists" get a hold of it.
@TheNotoriousROB
What are you guys talking about? Those emails were a right-wing conspiracy conspired by right-wing extreme home-grown terrorist racists. With guns. That they ship to Mexico to instigate Mexico's violent drug war which then spills over to our borders because they love ultra violence.
@TheNotoriousROB Don't be so pessimistic, maybe if we're lucky they'll release the "corrected" data in a few months. You know, the data that supports their presuppositions.
@(Unverified) Really? And, of course, the "scientists" denied that they wrote those e-mails. No, that's right a couple had to step down from their positions. It appears more like the "scientists" were the ones with the agenda.
@nastro
Looks like the whole Manmade Global Warming theory is taking it in the a$$. Good to see people getting a handle on how big a hoax it really is.
@(Unverified)
Why does your ass have dollars in them?
@Wwhat
Why does your name have an extra "w".
Let's not be a smartass, shall "w"e?
Why does this need to go in the Smithsonian? It seems nowadays universities are building gadgets just to put in the Smithsonian. Is anyone in 50 years going to talk about this ultra long-lasting dildo like they talk about the Apollo 11 capsule when they see it in the museum?
@(Unverified)
Judging by the amount of people looking at in on the picture... slim to none..
RU!
@italidesign R U rah rah!
@njknight RU rah rah!
Hoorah! hoorah! Rutgers rah!
Upstream red team, red team upstream
Rah! rah! Rutgers rah!
To be honest, I was hoping it would be about the size and shape of a roomba/scooba.
I'd love to see a Roomba cover the Atlantic one day...
Just wait til the cartels get ahold of this tech...
They already ordered all the research papers, guaranteed.
@(Unverified)
Yeah, "we just sent that shipment of coke, keep an eye out for it next August".
Yeah as if people will stop being addicts all of a sudden and next august you can't get rid of it right?
Just send one every week and once they start arriving there's a steady stream if you pardon the pun.
Let's go RU!
RU FTW
Not all that advanced, YSI here in the US, has had a robotic underwater sub system for years, and it gathers more than just temp but water quality and has side scan sonar, air bags that deploy if it gets into trouble, uses way points, gps, and dead reckoning to get around.
https://www.ysi.com/portal/page/portal/YSI_Environmental/Products/Product_Family/Product?productID=SYS_ECOMAPPER
@savytech
Yes b/c a 10 hour run time at 3 knots is exactly the same thing as traveling 4600 miles in 225 days.
@scyber
ohhh snap!
I'm looking forward to seeing how climate change researchers edit this data to suit their purposes.
I think this story is pretty amazing, but what's more amazing is the characterization by some to as "no big deal". This is a 134 lb torpedo that went 4600 miles across the entire ocean over 225 days. How can you say it's "not all that advanced" and use the ysi.com link which talks about one that has "10 hour runtime", how does this even compare? This thing ran for 540 times longer.
This isn't a one-off by a university, this is a commercial product that they bought from Webb Research. It's a Thermal Slocum Glider:
http://www.webbresearch.com/thermal.aspx
named after Joshua Slocum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Slocum
They also already have a satellite reading ocean salinity and temps so that data is also not needed, it all seems to lose impact.
@NOLAMike
Your correct, the two have different run times, if that is all you are comparing! But the YSI unit does A LOT MORE in terms of the data it collects, read the specs and options brutha!
OctaneZ pointed out correctly that this is a production product, and not something the univerisity came up with, but rather spend their coin on, and used it for that purpose. So why does it deserve a spot in the good ol smith??
Not saying this not cool, just not that much of a wow at all. Just surprised it ended up here at all.
RU is pretty BA