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Unmanned Seaplane Takes Off

Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

"We spend a lot of ship time driving in circles and doing the basic set-up work for an expedition," said Hanumant.

"The ability to take off from and land on water is a huge step forward," he said.

In addition, he said, a UAV such as the Flying Fish would allow scientists to maximize the amount of data that they accumulate on any given mission.

For example, when underwater robotic vehicles gather deep-ocean measurements or images, they transmit the data up to the water's surface via sonar. A ship needs to be directly over the underwater robot to capture the best signal. But if Singh had a Flying Fish, he would let the seaplane collect the data, while the ship performed other parts of the mission.

"Once it gets that, either we talk to [the plane] wirelessly or fly it back it to the ship," he said.

Before the Flying Fish is cruising the drafts above the waves, it will need more funding. The first step will be to outfit the seaplane with the solar cells and add more sensors.

Related Links:

Tracy Staedter's blog: What the Tech?

DARPA's "Persistent Ocean Surveillance" Program

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute