If observing space is a huge task, exploring the sea floor can also be considered a titanic task. This hostile environment is difficult to deal with from both a military and scientific point of view. Technology is still trying to find a way to reach the most extreme depths of the oceans, while more of its great challenges lie in the future. using renewable energy to expand missions as much as possible.
Military and private research projects are trying to develop various ways to keep the device in water for long periods of time to discover what is believed to be the last unexplored frontier of this world. The key is inside recharge your battery while driving with a lightweight system which makes it possible to create mappers and submarines that work tirelessly as space satellites and their use of solar panels.
With this goal in mind, in the Indian Ocean near the Hawaiian coast, the curious device has been tracing the sea floor three times a day without rest since the beginning of the year. This is the infinitiTE robotic float developed by Seatrec, which uses a system of generating renewable energy through changes in ocean temperature.
infinitiTE float
Based on NASA technology, this solution offers a constant power source, enabling the device to operate indefinitely and without high costs. Currently, many marine sensors rely on batteries that can only be abandoned or recharged from a ship when discharged, and some points can be weeks away. “On the open sea, this ship costs about $50,000 a day and burns tons of diesel,” explains NASA as part of this project.
From solid to liquid
The Infinite float is powered by clean, renewable energy using thermal changes in seawater. The key is in the change of state from solid to liquid water. A concept that is similar to a steam engine using the expansion of water to turn it into steam and turn the engine.
There are many substances such as water that expand when heated, that is, when they change from a solid to a liquid or from a liquid to a gas, they are known as phase change materials (PCMs) and are used to release or absorb energy when heating equipment or cooling systems.
Two SL1 modules attached to a robotic float
The expansion of the PCM generates pressure that can be captured to generate electricity. Seatrec uses this phenomenon in its new generation technologies. For example, When the volume of the material changes, it drives the compressed liquid through the motor, converting hydraulic energy into electricity.
When immersed in cold water, the surrounding water cools and freezes the material, which expands and activates the motor. Upon reaching the surface, the material melts again as the temperature increases, restarting the process in an endless loop.
The team chose a common paraffin-based material for this technology. The selected element has a melting point of 10 degrees Celsius, while the average ocean temperature is 4.44 degrees. “For example, a docking profiler can be significantly larger than an SL1 or SLG and provide a 10-fold or even 100-fold increase in power output for powering sensors and charging propeller-driven autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs),” the company says. .
Up to 2000 meters
Yi Chao, Founder and CEO of Seatrec, He developed the idea during his 15 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).. Although Yi Chao resembled a steam engine, it was inspired by a more modern technology, space technology. To calibrate NASA’s Aquarius instrument, which maps the oceans from Earth orbit, the JPL team deployed robotic floats, an experiment that draws on a long history of innovation that piqued this scientist’s interest.
Seabed mapping operation with renewable energy sources
After various tests, Chao obtained an exclusive license for the invention from the California Institute of Technology, which is managed by JPL, and founded Seatrec in 2016. Since then, he has been involved in other projects, such as the manta ray, which Northrop Grumman engineers presented to NASA. This marine drone also features a type of power harvesting technology developed by Seatrec to extend its underwater operations.
To test his invention, in January 2024 the float was deployed near Kona Hawaii with the intention of understanding the oceanic processes that influence hurricane intensity. The device performs a profile every 6 hours at a depth of 1,000 meters, according to the company. At the moment, the company’s website lists 623 profiles in which you can see the path that this float took on the Hawaiian coast.
El sensor CTD You can create up to 3 background profiles each day, although the company offers a version capable of reaching a depth of 2,000 meters upon request. Nor is reaching deeper into the seabed the only goal the company has set itself.
The company hopes for the future develop a power plant that would circulate liquid-to-gas material in the ocean, generating orders of magnitude more energy to recharge more marine robots. For this project, Seatrec has a subsidy from the US Navy, with which they intend to deploy a power plant in the Arctic ice, using the difference in water temperatures and the much colder air above the ice.
