The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal Recharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle is, well, quite a mouthful. It's also the first submarine that can run a
sizable percentage of forever without requiring a charge. When the 183-pound buoy dives, cooler water temperature causes a liquid wax-like substance inside to solidify, squeezing out oil that drives a hydraulic generator; when it surfaces, the wax softens once again, ready for another round. Every dive produces 1.7 watt-hours of electricity, enough to power all the instruments, GPS and buoyancy-control pump on board. It's like a
drinking bird that never runs out of water. Designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Scripps researchers, the thermal engine is envisioned as an oceanography tool... but since the US Navy also has a finger in the pie, don't be surprised if it plays a minor role in the coming
robot apocalypse as well.
posted April 28th 2010 5:12AM
1.7wHr is nothing, that's about what a new dumbphone uses
@HW90 sweet! So when the caps melt, and there's no land, we will still be able to charge our dumbphones and make calls and play snake.
Looks like Santa is going for a swim.
It's not perpetual motion in the same way a solar panel connected to a motor or a water wheel isn't. Their source of movement requires an external source of power.
@Kieran It is not a true perpetual motion machine, since we actually consume some environmental energy
@Kieran
Hence why they said "...of a sort."
@Alex there is not of sort in physics.
@filjosh
There is no humor in physics either, it's pretty obvious that the use of "perpetual motion" here is a joke of a sorts and Engadget is not a physics textbook of sorts so get over yourself of sorts.
@Kieran
Wouldn't this thing eventually stop? It seems like at some point it would find a 'steady state', a point between the surface and depth and roughly just sit there.
Like a lava lamp
@TM
exactly! not the silly drinking bird. its got a lava lamp for a generator. oh that's clever, that is.
@TM
Yeah I mean perpetual motion is completely impossible.
It's like saying the "lava" in a lava lamp's movement will power a generator that powers the light to make the lava move. It just isn't possible in any way... there is always an external source for energy.
@Kevin6432
Except of course not only is perpetual motion possible, but perpetual motion is unavoidable. Everything in the universe is in continuous motion, and the all permeating fundamental forces, even if weak over large distances ensure that everything is kept in motion (not to mention all that quantum foam and the problems with actually being certain about motion). In fact the impossibility of building perfect barriers to the forces is the reason all energy eventually leaks out of a 'perpetual motion machine' - in effect 'perpetual motion machines' of the sort we imagine because everything is in perpetual motion. Sure as the universe expands all the energy should be getting spread out and cooler, and all the order of that energy should be continuously degenerating towards an average entropic milieu of meh, allowing less and less useful work to be done, but that's another bedtime story. The moral is the universe is the unending and frustrating perpetual motion machine of doom.
They should sell it to Steorn.
I for one welcome our future submarine overlords.
It's kind of hard to rule humanity when the entire overlordship has to dive down to the bottom of the ocean every once in a while.
"Lisa, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
Perpetual motion squad.
Some whales use similar 'tech' for buoyancy. Strange there's no mention of it.
@eberan Randomly, I happened to be reading about whales and dolphins earlier today and read how the sperm whale something similar, but not quite the same (kind of opposite actually).
It takes cold water into its spermaceti organ causing the wax to harden and helping it to dive easier. The whale's own movement and activity causes the wax to melt over time and helps it to resurface.
No oil or generator involved in this case, but it still seems like the whales must have been an inspiration for this tech.
I disapprove of these attempts to make cool acronyms for everything. Like bad sex, it just feels forced.
@Kieran, duh, that's what the "of a sort" in the title is about. Nobody is saying this is REAL perpetual motion. But like solar, getting your power directly from your environment is pretty cool.
@StringMon
As fijosh said there is no "sort of" in physics. By your reasoning I'm sort of immortal, except for the fact I'll die eventually.