This autonomous glider could one day roam the oceans in packs

18 May 2018429 Views


An albatross glider designed by MIT engineers. Image: Gabriel Bousquet/Shutterstock



The vastness of the world’s oceans makes it incredibly difficult for anyone to effectively monitor a large body of water. While satellites have certainly helped, we have yet to find an effective Earth-based solution.


The autonomous glider is capable of riding the waves like a sailboat and skimming along the water’s surface in a glide similar to an albatross.

‘The oceans remain vastly under-monitored’

When dropped into a region of high wind, it is designed to stay aloft; when the winds are calmer, it can become a sea-faring vessel.

Borrowing from both nautical and biological designs, the craft can cover a determined distance using one-third as much wind as an albatross, while travelling 10 times faster than a typical sailboat can, as it weighs just under 3kg.

“The oceans remain vastly under-monitored,” said Gabriel Bousquet who led the design of the robot as part of his graduate thesis.

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Gliding albatross

The craft glides like an albatross over water. Image: Goldilock Project/Shutterstock

Roaming in packs


The team found that the physics of the bird’s flight is very similar to that of sailboat travel, as they both transfer momentum in order to keep moving.


Once the design was agreed upon, it was then a matter of adding the hardware, which includes GPS, inertial measurement sensors, autopilot instrumentation and ultrasound to track the height of the glider above the water.

The team’s goal is to one day have a design that will allow for packs of these speedy skimmers to be deployed to cover huge areas of an ocean.

Colm Gorey is a senior journalist with