ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands — Shaped like a torpedo and designed to glide up and down through the ocean's depths using thermal power, a prototype underwater robot that can collect data for scientific research is undergoing testing in the deep waters off St. Thomas. If all goes well, scientists plan to deploy the thermal glider prototype for a trans-Atlantic "flight" in the coming days. "All of them fly in the water - that's why we call them gliders," said David Pingal, manager of Software Engineering and Information Technology at Teledyne Webb Research, the company that has already developed battery-powered undersea gliders and is testing the prototype, which harnesses the differential between warm sea-surface temperatures and cold deep-sea temperatures to power its movement. Webb Research, along with a crew from Rutgers University - which has extensive experience piloting the robots - are working out of the University of the Virgin Islands Center for Marine and Environmental Studies. "What we get out of it is having the data that they collect from the instruments," said Nasseer Idrisi, acting director for the UVI Center for Marine and Environmental Studies. "We use the data in our coral reef research, in terms of looking at oceanographic conditions and processes." Rutgers, which has about 20 of the battery-powered gliders, also is launching a new glider in its fleet on its maiden voyage between the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, said Chip Haldeman, a marine technician at Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. The glider goes deeper - to 1,000 meters below the sea surface - than Rutgers' other gliders. All are produced by Webb Research. Rutgers has a program that is associated with the Caribbean Regional Association for Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing Systems and works in partnership with UVI, Idrisi said. St. Thomas is an attractive location for the testing because there is very deep water close to shore, Pingal said. Last April, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tested a previous prototype thermal glider model here, repeatedly crossing the basin between St. Thomas and St. Croix. The gliders collect information on conductivity, temperature and depth for oceanographic research, and can be programmed to collect other data, Pingal said. "What that gives us is a physical picture of the ocean and how the currents move," Haldeman said. | | The prototype undersea robotic glider being tested in the Virgin Islands is powered by the differential between warm sea-surface temperatures and cold deep-sea temperatures. The gliding robots slowly descend, plumbing the ocean's depths, and then periodically resurface to "phone home," download data and get a fix on their positions. Each comes equipped with a satellite phone and a GPS system housed in its tail fin. The thermal glider prototype, which can drop to depths of 1,200 meters below the sea surface, likely will set off on a trans-Atlantic voyage from St. Thomas soon. "If all goes well, we'll send it to the Canary Islands," Haldeman said. Idrisi said that UVI benefits from the choice of St. Thomas as a location for researchers and engineers in these projects to do their work. "The benefits to UVI are having this cutting edge technology being developed here - and getting the data by having the tests done here," Idrisi said. He added that the university would like to develop programs to involve students in the research. by CHRIS WALSH |
