4 ms·

>powered by the waves they travel through. How does this work? Wouldn't they expend more energy than they gain?

mac01021 11y ago
The ocean waves move a float up and down at the surface. This pulls and pushes a set of fins-on-hinges below the surface to create forward motion. It's ingenious, and works because the waves don't push objects laterally, but are really just a vertical oscillation. The company that makes it is called Liquid Robotics, which should be enough to go on if you want to search for additional details.
- unclebucknasty 11y ago
  Thanks for the background and the pointer. That is very interesting tech, and the key piece of exploiting the difference between wave motion at the surface vs at depth is ingenious.
nordsieck 11y ago
Basically a wave glider is a surf board with a wing hanging below it. The wing can tip up or down 45 degrees, but no more. This means that any up or down movement on the part of the wave glider also gets converted into some forward movement.
nardi 11y ago
That doesn't seem clear-cut to me. There's a lot of energy in waves that could be captured somehow. It's not like a perpetual motion machine.
- unclebucknasty 11y ago
  The notion of capturing wave energy as the waves are being travelled through was what set off my skepticism. My thinking was that energy thus "captured" would entail resistance that opposes the work to move the craft, thereby offsetting any energy "gained".
  - nardi 11y ago
    > energy thus "captured" would entail resistance that opposes the work to move the craft Only if capturing motion that opposes the direction of movement.
todd8 11y ago
I happened to remember reading about a wave powered design that propels a small model boat. I recall seeing it in an old Popular Mechanics and that the year was maybe 1948. I read it while in I was in 7th or 8th grade in a stack of my Uncle's old magazines stored in my Grandmother's basement over half a century ago! With the help of Google I found the article in less than a minute; I was off by a year: https://books.google.com/books?id=9NgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA182&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=9NgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA182&sour... . Take a look it explains how such a design works.
- unclebucknasty 11y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I can see some challenges with this, but the basic principle seems strikingly similar. Not sure what's more impressive: your memory or how easy it is to access relatively obscure information from well over a half-century ago.

The ocean waves move a float up and down at the surface. This pulls and pushes a set of fins-on-hinges below the surface to create forward motion. It's ingenious, and works because the waves don't push objects laterally, but are really just a vertical oscillation. The company that makes it is called Liquid Robotics, which should be enough to go on if you want to search for additional details.

unclebucknasty 11y ago
Thanks for the background and the pointer. That is very interesting tech, and the key piece of exploiting the difference between wave motion at the surface vs at depth is ingenious.

nordsieck 11y ago

Basically a wave glider is a surf board with a wing hanging below it. The wing can tip up or down 45 degrees, but no more. This means that any up or down movement on the part of the wave glider also gets converted into some forward movement.

nardi 11y ago

That doesn't seem clear-cut to me. There's a lot of energy in waves that could be captured somehow. It's not like a perpetual motion machine.

unclebucknasty 11y ago
The notion of capturing wave energy as the waves are being travelled through was what set off my skepticism. My thinking was that energy thus "captured" would entail resistance that opposes the work to move the craft, thereby offsetting any energy "gained".
- nardi 11y ago
  > energy thus "captured" would entail resistance that opposes the work to move the craft Only if capturing motion that opposes the direction of movement.

todd8 11y ago

I happened to remember reading about a wave powered design that propels a small model boat. I recall seeing it in an old Popular Mechanics and that the year was maybe 1948. I read it while in I was in 7th or 8th grade in a stack of my Uncle's old magazines stored in my Grandmother's basement over half a century ago! With the help of Google I found the article in less than a minute; I was off by a year: https://books.google.com/books?id=9NgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA182&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=9NgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA182&sour... . Take a look it explains how such a design works.

unclebucknasty 11y ago
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I can see some challenges with this, but the basic principle seems strikingly similar. Not sure what's more impressive: your memory or how easy it is to access relatively obscure information from well over a half-century ago.