How Wave-Powered Robots Will Rule the Seas
Liquid Robotics' ingenious invention has created global demand for wave-powered robots capable of cruising the world's oceans and sending valuable intel back to the cloud. The Silicon Valley company recently captured the attention of venture firm VantagePoint Capital Partners and oil and gas services giant Schlumberger, who led a $22 million investment in the startup.
Judging by its kaleidoscopic business model, interest in Liquid Robotics isn't going to fade anytime soon. It seems everyone from oil companies and marine researchers to anti-poaching activists and the military could use a seaworthy robot.
The motion of the ocean
Traditionally, researchers like the folks over at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration have relied on sensors secured to buoys and boats for their data. But research ships are expensive and buoy sensors are stuck in one place. Other existing unmanned marine drones depend on batteries that eventually lose their charge.
Liquid Robotics' wave gliders don't require any batteries or fossil fuels. Instead, the robot have fins that are designed to use the up and down motion of the ocean to propel it forward. The robots are equipped with cameras, radios and sensors, which are all powered by solar panels.
Once Liquid Robotics launches a robot, they're pretty much self-sustaining. However, a Liquid Robotics employee can always step in and "captain" it remotely from the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters.
Cloud-based ocean computing
The robots, which have been put through numerous missions and endurance trials -- are impressive. But it's the company's cloud-based computing service that's particularly cool and promising as a business.
The wave glider base price is $140,000 and a robot tricked out with sensors can go beyond $200,000, a company spokeswoman told me. Not every company wants to buy its own robot, especially if it can just pay Liquid Robotics to deploy and operate the robot and then retrieve live data on its own. One robot, if it's fitted with the correct sensors, could feasibly feed data to several different companies at one time.
From humpback whales to oil exploration
The wave-powered robots were borne out of a joint venture between Jupiter Research Foundation and inventor Roger Hine to develop unmoored data buoys that could monitor humpback whales. In 2007, they spun off Liquid Robotics as a for-profit company.
I first heard about Liquid Robotics last August after BP -- still reeling from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico -- announced it would use two of these robots as part of a long-term research program to monitor marine life and water quality.
Marine and climate change research is an obvious application for the wave-powered robots. But it could become an indispensable tool for the oil and gas industry as well. For example, robots could be used in the event of disaster like the BP oil spill or help with day-to-day offshore operations like monitoring weather conditions.
It's a potential cash cow for Liquid Robotics, if it markets the robots correctly. The oil and gas industry has significant cash resources -- more than some countries -- and will spend money on products that can help it find oil more efficiently.
Photo from Liquid Robotics
Related: