I couldn't figure out whether these things follow the rules of the road. Do they at least have AIS receivers?
Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
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Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#12I wonder how long before drugs are smuggled with drone ships.
Minus a couple of years, that is already a thing. Not sail drones though, as far as I know.
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#13Saw the video yesterday on YouTube. I wonder what happens if they get into very strong winds or very strong swell - if they tip over, do they get up by themselves? What happens if they submerge? Apparently they figured out how to do it, but my question is, how exactly are they doing it?
I've actually seen one of these at sea. Not this particular one but a similar autonomous vessel. Large swells aren't a problem. If it floats a swell will pass under it. Breaking swells are a concern and usually occur under gale force winds. A boat has a displacement that is less than water. Which is how it floats. A small weighted bulb in the keel keeps everything pointing upright. You can mitigate the forces on a sa…
Nice, thank you for taking the time to explain this!
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#14Saw the video yesterday on YouTube. I wonder what happens if they get into very strong winds or very strong swell - if they tip over, do they get up by themselves? What happens if they submerge? Apparently they figured out how to do it, but my question is, how exactly are they doing it?
Isn't that what a keel does?
The keel of a modern sailboat does provide "righting moment" to help keep the boat upright, but it's also used to provide hydrodynamic lift in opposition to the sails so that the boat can sail somewhat upwind. These two goals have to be balanced against each other and against performance in the context of mass and friction.
I suppose though a drone has more flexibility in design parameters by not having people and people-related supplies on board.
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#15What’s next? Car drones, rail drones and sub-marine drones? Bike drones?!
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#16What’s next? Car drones, rail drones and sub-marine drones? Bike drones?!
I imagine autonomous bicycles using gyroscopes to stay stable, highly integrated camera's with environment comprehension (Waymo off-the-shelf chips) to redistribute them over the city at night.
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#17> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,”
Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching around the globe.
More to the point, with a fidonet-/usenet-like stop-and-forward system - it might be viable to get data to land quicker than waiting for the drone to arrive with hard drives - and with greater/cheaper bandwidth than via satellite?
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that what a keel does?
Yes, but a keel is also limited right? It's still possible to tip over and - if potentially submerged, not come back up? But to be honest, I have very little knowledge on this topic, so maybe a keel is all it needs!
As long as it not fills with water, I'd say it will right it self.
On a traditional boat the sails can dig down in the water and needs to be released rather quickly, and you don't want the hatch to be open, but neither of this seems to be a problem here.
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#19> They’ve all come back without a single scratch, just a beard of barnacles Solution: https://wyss.harvard.edu/barnacles-and-mussels-wont-stick-to...
Might be a solution in search of a problem: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/409710/whale-inspired-win...
Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science
#20Younger researchers no longer want to spend that much time at sea, cut off from most of the internet. “It’s really hard to get the younger generation excited about going to sea,” says NOAA’s Meinig. “People think it’s romantic and then find they can’t text their friends and don’t have access to hundreds of channels of TV. It’s just a different style of life.”
Fascinating. I guess the Saildrone is the ideal solution.