The ocean data services provider Liquid Robotics has today formally opened its Pacific Crossing (PacX) Challenge for the scientists around the world.
Liquid Robotics is known for its award winning wave-powered Wave Glider marine robot, which serves as the platform for scientific and industrial payloads. As part of the PacX Challenge, Liquid Robotics will launch four Wave Gliders in the fall of 2011 off the coast of Northern California. The wave powered robot vehicles will aim to set record by traveling the longest distance at sea by an unmanned marine vehicle, the company explained in a press release.
The robots are scheduled to travel together to Hawaii and then take separate routes across the Pacific, one pair expected to arrive in Japan and the other in Australia.
While at sea, the Wave Gliders will be routed across regions and keep on transmitting valuable data on salinity and water temperature, waves, weather, fluorescence, and dissolved oxygen. The interested researchers can access the data in near real-time to by registering here.
Leading oceanographic organizations like Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Monterey Naval Post Graduate School are planning to use the data gathered during the Pacific Crossing.
“Liquid Robotics invites scientists to embark on a grand challenge journey with us as we cross the Pacific on a voyage of scientific discovery. These Wave Gliders are much like small 'spacecraft' that open up new opportunities for robotic exploration. I challenge all scientists who are interested in advancing ocean exploration to take advantage of this unique opportunity. What scientific questions can we address with this new and unique data set?” chief of innovative applications at Liquid Robotics Ed Lu noted in a statement.
The aspiring contestants are required to submit a one-page research abstract outlining their scientific intentions for the data collected during the Pacific crossing. The contestants are requested to visit the PacX challenge page at www.liquidr.com/pacx for contest guidelines, Liquid Robotics announced in the release.
The grand prize winner will receive six months of free Wave Glider data services and will work with Liquid Robotics to chart the course and mission for the six month deployment, including sensor configuration.
Earlier this week, Liquid Robotics announced that Edward T. Lu, formerly of Google and NASA, has joined the company as chief of innovative applications.
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for SDNzone. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
