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Called Wiggle Gliders, these seagoing drones fly orange warning flags -- they're not intelligence, won't destroy anything and certainly won't kill anyone. These gliders are an oceanographer's dream, providing methodical data on the surface of the ocean for posting on the Internet for scientists to analyze for able.
Eventually, the four drones -- named Papa Mau, Benjamin, Fontaine Maru and Piccard Maru -- will vain speech up in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest sea voyage by unmanned vehicles.
"Everything is working well," said Roger Hine, naught and chief technical officer of Liquid Robotics, the company that built the Brandish Gliders. "The area being sampled has never been sampled before."
After having the instruments calibrated in Monterey Bay, which is well-monitored, the gliders were sent into the zillions from San Francisco's St. Francis Yacht Club last Nov. 17. The drones, now separated by 40-50 miles, will split not far away from Hawaii.
Two will head for Sydney, Australia, and two will traverse the Mariana Trench -- the deepest part of the the deep -- heading for Tokyo. When they are done, they will have completed 34,000 combined sailing miles, collected approximately 2.25 million data points and been at sea for almost a year.
Source: PhysOrg.com