Unmanned sailboat plus sensors become a powerful tool for ocean data tracking

• Categories:Industry information
• Time of issue:2016-09-18 08:56

(Summary description)　　There is an old hangar at the Alameda Naval Air Station at a distance of 2500 nautical miles (about 4630 kilometers) from the two sailing ships, where the bold mechanical engineer Richard Jenkins is tracking the movements of the two autonomous sailing ships through a monitor. This hangar is now the command center of the small technology company Saildrone.   　　In Silicon Valley, at least 20 companies are trying to realize the dream of driverless cars. In contrast, unmanned sailboats have already been put into use.       　While acquiring fish data, Saildrone's unmanned ship is also monitoring the tracks of the fish-eating seals, which are equipped with sensors by scientists.      　 "We can tell you how big fish these seals eat and where they swim." said Jenkins, one of the founders and chairman of Saildrone.       　Last summer, the company worked with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to use unmanned ships to collect specific temperature, salinity, and ecosystem data on the Arctic glacier cover. If these data are collected manually, it is difficult to obtain.       　Saildrone's automatic trimaran looks like a reduced version of the American Cup, with a rigid carbon fiber hull and small size.       　The sail of this ship acts as the wing of an airplane, and when the wind passes over it, the ship can get propulsion. Sailing boats are stabilized by a weighing hammer located at the bow, and the direction is adjusted by the oars at the stern. There is a rudder at the bottom of the ship to assist in adjusting the direction, and a keel to quickly restore the original position when the ship capsizes.       　The most distinctive feature of this ship is that it is unmanned. They are under the control of the command center's communications satellites and complete the tasks of collecting geographic data, monitoring fish activities, and collecting environmental information.       　One day they may be used to provide weather forecasts, assist oil and gas industry operations, and even help combat illegal fishing.       　Jenkins is very optimistic about the future of unmanned sailboats. He believes that it is data that helps humans solve the mystery of global warming. He feels that his fleet of 23-inch unmanned ships can bring thousands of sensors, shuttle through the oceans of the world, and find the key to solving problems.       　The data collected by unmanned ships may be enough for scientists to discover the extent to which global warming threatens the survival of mankind, and whether such threats will occur within decades or have to wait for centuries.       　Of course, if anyone is willing to pay for the start of these boats. Unmanned boats are not used for sale. Scientists, fishermen and weather forecast centers can rent these boats for data collection at a price of US$2,500 per day.       　Saildrone received $2.5 million in its first investment from former Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and his wife WendySchmidt, and recently also received $10,000 from three socially caring venture capital firms. The three companies are SocialCapital, Lux and Capricorn.       　"It is very realistic that I am interested in Saildrone," said Chamath Palihapitiya, the former director of Facebook and the founder of SocialCapital. "Let us stop arguing about where global warming is happening. Let us measure it by ourselves. If you get the details We can quickly move to the next step of governance and see where changes need to be made with the correct and effective data."       　Every search unmanned ship is equipped with a large number of sensors, sending large amounts of data back to the control center.       　"Monitoring the earth's body temperature and pulse is not as difficult as imagined." said Jenkins, a 39-year-old mechanical engineer with messy hair and once trained at Imperial College London.       　He has discovered many scientists and engineers who have nothing to do with collecting fine sea surface data and hope to purchase services.       　"I have a great ship but no sensors. We have sensors but no ships." said Christian Meinig, director of engineering at the Pacific Ocean Environmental Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. His laboratory has begun to use these ships to advance their El Niño warm ocean current research in the Pacific.       　The design of the unmanned ship started when Jenkins tried to break the world's land speed record in 1999. He was successful in 2009. The "Greenbird" dryland ship designed to reach a dry lake in Southern California Speed of 126.2 miles per hour.       　In order to maintain stability at such high speeds, Jenkins replaced traditional sails with vertical carbon fiber sails, and added a unique stabilizer tail as an aid. The tail wing can automatically adjust the sails, and the adjustment speed is much faster than the speed of a sailing rope reeling.       　He adjusted the design of