ONR-Funded Seaglider Successfully Transitions to the Commercial World

Sea Technology, Sep 2008

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently announced the signing of a sole licensing agreement between iRobot (Bedford, Massachusetts) and UW TechTransfer at the University of Washington to commercialize Seaglider technology, which was originally supported by ONR.

"ONR is excited to see iRobot license the Seaglider," said ONR program manager Teresa Paluszkiewicz. "Their ability to commercialize cutting-edge technology innovations for the soldier and the consumer should help expand the use of this new tool."

iRobot is best known as the manufacturer of PackBots, used by explosive ordnance disposal experts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Roomba, a household vacuuming robot.

Seagliders, which were developed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington, are autonomous underwater vehicles that rely on a buoyancy-based propulsion system that allows them to glide slowly through the oceans for extremely long durations of weeks or months.

The vehicles can collect oceanographic measurement data, are less expensive than manned research vessels and can cover far greater geographic areas than traditional buoys, company representatives said.

A Seaglider travels at half a knot on half a watt of power and can dive from the surface down to 3,300 feet and back up every three to nine hours.

It remains at the surface long enough to transmit data it has collected, relay its position and receive instructions via a satellite phone network before diving again, the company said.