The Wave Glider: A Wave-Powered autonomous marine vehicle

Abstract

The Wave Glider is a new autonomous marine vehicle that is unique in its ability to harness ocean wave energy for platform propulsion. This paper provides an overview of the Wave Glider vehicle's architecture and capabilities, and presents results from the extensive engineering sea trials that we have conducted with several prototype and the current production generations of the vehicle. The vehicle's performance in a variety of ocean conditions is described. The vehicle's robustness and capabilities for extended mission durations are also examined. The vehicle's autonomous control architecture is explained, as are the web-based interfaces for external control and monitoring of the platform. Finally, we discuss several payload packages that have been or are currently being developed for the vehicle.