Teledyne Slocum G3 Glider

描述

The Slocum G3 is Teledyne Webb Research's autonomous underwater glider: a buoyancy-driven vehicle that sinks and rises through the water column, gliding forward as it does, to observe the ocean over long ranges and durations for academic, military and commercial users. Teledyne calls Slocum the most prolific underwater gliding platform, with multiple ocean-basin crossings demonstrated and over 150 vehicles shipped for defence use. It is 1.5 m long with a 22 cm hull and weighs 55 to 70 kg. A hydraulic buoyancy drive (840 to 1,800 cc) gives an average 0.35 m/s (0.68 knot) and up to 0.5 m/s, and an optional hybrid thruster adds up to 1 m/s (2 knots). Depending on the energy source - alkaline, rechargeable lithium or primary lithium - a deployment lasts 15 to 50 days, 1 to 4 months or 4 to 18 months, covering 350 to 13,000 km, with operating depth ranges of 4-150 m or 40-1,000 m. It navigates by GPS, pressure sensor, altimeter and dead reckoning and communicates by RF modem, Iridium, ARGOS and acoustic modem. Gliders run pre-programmed routes, surfacing to send data and receive new instructions, and are piloted from anywhere through the web-based Slocum Fleet Mission Control software, so small teams can run fleets. Over 50 sensor options include ADCPs, CTDs, acoustic modems, passive acoustics, echosounders, fish-tag detection, nitrate, oxygen and optical sensors. Teledyne says gliders provide oceanographic data at about 1 percent of the cost of survey-ship operations.

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