We have recently posted about Slocum gliders, autonomous underwater vehicles, capable of extended voyages and used by oceanographers to map ocean conditions. Saildrone, a company in California, has recently launched a 19′ long by 7′ wide autonomous trimaran sailing drone capable of carrying an oceanographic sensor payload of 220 pounds. On October 1st, Saildrone-1 set off from San Francisco and arrived 34 days later in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Since then Saildrone-1 has successfully sailed over 100 days at sea in the Pacific covering 5873 miles at an average speed of 2.5 knots. The designers and builders of Saildrone suggest that their drone will prove to be far less expensive than traditional research ships. They believe it will be useful for buoy replacement, shark tracking and the study of ocean acidification. It looks like an interesting design. My only concern is collision avoidance, if many of these autonomous drones are sent to sea.
Thanks to Harry Milkman for pointing out the Saildrone on Facebook.