Unmanned scientific submarine glides across the Atlantic from New Jersey to Galicia

On April 27, 2009, undergraduate engineering students from Rutgers University launched their star Project: the Scarlet Knight, an oceanic glider, a kind of robotic submarine driven by battery packs and propelled by the movement of waves and ocean currents.

The objective of this submarine robot is to make history and cross the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of New Jersey, where it left more than six months ago, to reach Galicia at the beginning of December.

The project is part of the “Crossing the Atlantic” initiative that seeking to learn as much as possible about currents, waves, temperatures and water pressure in real time so as to be better able to forecast ocean conditions and predict long-term changes in the ocean and the climate.

This is the second expedition for the Scarlet Knight: the glider couldn´t achieve its goal last year and sank off the coast off the Azores Islands. In a new attempt , the Rutgers students have applied all their engineering, oceanographic, and knowledge of other disciplines and have introduced new improvements in the technical side such as the possibility to dive up to 200 meters, a new surface material, longer and remote monitoring of battery power, and more efficient software on board.

If everything goes well, after arriving Galicia in December, the oceanic glider will visit Madrid and then will be sent to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. http://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/atlantic/

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