Swimming Robot Reaches Australia After Record-Breaking Trip 72
A reader writes "A self-controlled swimming robot has completed a journey from San Francisco to Australia. The record-breaking 9,000 nautical mile (16,668km) trip took the PacX Wave Glider just over a year to achieve. Liquid Robotics, the U.S. company behind the project, collected data about the Pacific Ocean's temperature, salinity and ecosystem from the drone. The company said its success demonstrated that such technology could 'survive the high seas.' The robot is called Papa Mau in honor of the late Micronesian navigator Pius 'Mau' Piailug, who had a reputation for finding ways to navigate the seas without using traditional equipment. 'During Papa Mau's journey, [it] weathered gale-force storms, fended off sharks, spent more than 365 days at sea, skirted around the Great Barrier Reef, and finally battled and surfed the east Australian current to reach his final destination in Hervey Bay, near Bundaberg, Queensland,' the company said in a statement. Some of the data it gathered about the abundance of phytoplankton -plant-like organisms that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and provide food for other sea life -could already be monitored by satellite. However, the company suggested that its equipment offered more detail, providing a useful tool for climate model scientists."
not more boat people (Score:2, Funny)
Not another illegal arrival from overseas, we get enough of those already! :-)
Swimming is a new way to do it though, most use boats...
Gilligan... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:pronounciation (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you, but what makes you think "aussies" are pronouncing it correctly?
I mean, it would be a first.
Re:pronounciation (Score:5, Funny)
Got it.
And after the robot reached shore... (Score:0, Funny)
he realized he'd forgotten his laptop computer, and would have to swim back.
Re:not more boat people (Score:5, Funny)
So much for Australia.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:pronounciation (Score:4, Funny)
'Varbie'.
Got it.
No, numbnuts... it's 'barbie' with a 'v'.
I.e., 'bvrbie.'
Re:pronounciation (Score:4, Funny)
In New Zealand they say that Australian women have the best sense of humour in the world and continually prove it by marrying Australian men.