IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 6
more online at www.spectrum.ieee.org
Defense Contractors Snap Up
Submersible Robot Gliders
U.S. Navy contract stirs interest in propellerless AUVs
S
chools of small fish follow
them for company or shade,
but sharks, less friendly,
have on occasion chomped on
their elongated bodies. These new
arrivals to the underwater world
are small submersible robots
known as gliders because they
thrust themselves through the
water not with propellers but by
simply changing their buoyancy.
Thanks to this neat trick, gliders
consume just a trickle of power
www.SPEcTrUm.iEEE.orG
and can remain at sea for several
months at a time, surfacing only
to get a GPS fix and beam data
to satellites. A mission using
a conventional autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) lasts
only hours.
Now it seems gliders have
caught the attention of some other
big fish. This month, the U.S. Navy
plans to announce the winner of
a contract for 154 gliders, plus
spare parts, launch-and-recovery
equipment, and monitoring
systems. The order, valued at tens
of millions of dollars, sent defense
contractors racing to gobble up
the leading glider technologies.
In June, iRobot, in Bedford,
Mass., best known for its
Roomba vacuum cleaner and
bomb-disposal PackBot, became
the exclusive licensee of Seaglider,
developed at the University of
Washington, in Seattle. In July,
defense industry giant Teledyne
Technologies acquired Webb
Research, in East Falmouth,
Mass., creator of the Slocum
glider. General Dynamics
had earlier subcontracted
Bluefin Robotics, in Cambridge,
Mass., a licensee of the Spray,
a glider jointly developed
THE LIFE
AQUATIC:
A Spray robot
glider gathered
data for three
months in the
Solomon Sea,
east of Papua
New Guinea,
where a FrenchU.S. research
team is studying
how regional
currents affect
El Niño cycles.
The Spray is one
of three designs
competing for
a U.S. Navy
contract.
photo: Christophe MAes/
CeNtre irD
September 2008 * Ieee Spectrum * NA
11
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org
http://www.SPEcTrUm.iEEE.orG
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum September, 2008
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 1
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 2
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 3
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 4
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 5
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 6
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 7
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 8
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 9
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 10
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 11
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 12
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 13
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 14
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 15
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 16
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 17
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 18
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 19
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 20
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 21
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 22
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 23
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 24
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 25
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 26
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 27
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 28
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 29
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 30
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 31
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 32
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 33
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 34
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 35
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 36
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 37
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 38
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 39
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 40
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 41
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 42
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 43
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 44
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 45
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 46
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 47
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - 48
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum September, 2008 - Cover4
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