Liquid Robotics

Liquid Robotics, Inc.
Private
Founded 2007
Headquarters Sunnyvale, CA; Kamuela, HI.
Key people

CEO: Gary Gysin
CFO: Pablo Luther
CTO & Founder: Roger Hine

Chief Software Architect: James Gosling
Products Ocean data services
Number of employees
 120+
Website

www.liquid-robotics.com

www.lrog.com

Liquid Robotics is an American company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California that designs, manufactures, and sells an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) called the Wave Glider. The Wave Glider® is the world’s first ocean robot (or USV) to be powered 100% by wave and solar energy.[1]

The Wave Glider has revolutionized how the ocean is explored and understood by gathering data in ways and locations previously too costly or challenging to operate. With their global partner ecosystem, the Wave Glider addresses challenges facing defense, commercial, and science customers by making ocean data collection and communications easier, safer, and real-time. Solution areas include:[2] anti-submarine warfare, surface vessel detection, illegal fishing, drug/human trafficking, Marine Protected Areas (MPA) monitoring, seismic surveying, and various application areas for environmental assessment (weather forecasting, climate change, water quality monitoring).

Early History

In 2003 with a kayak, hydrophone, and a pickle jar, Joe Rizzi,[3] Founder and Chairman of the Jupiter Research Foundation,[4] embarked on a project to record the songs or "singing" of Humpback Whales as they migrated along the coasts of the Big Island of Hawai’i. In 2005, after many experiments, Joe enlisted Derek Hine and his son, Roger Hine,[5] a mechanical engineer and robotics expert from Stanford University, to help create "an unmoored, station-keeping data buoy" that could stay at sea for months, collect and transmit acoustic data while not harming the environment. Together, they came up with a non-motorized model that harnessed the natural energy in waves for forward propulsion and solar energy to power the hydrophone and communications equipment This breakthrough occurred and produced the first Wave Glider. In January 2007, recognizing the commercial potential for the technology, Liquid Robotics was founded with Roger Hine as the founding CEO.[6]

History - Post 2007

History - Post 2007 Over the next several years, Liquid Robotics conducted long duration endurance missions beginning with a nine-day circumnavigation of Hawaii's Big Island. Later that year a pair of Wave Gliders traveled from Hawaii to San Diego, an 82-day trip that covered more than 2,500 miles.[7] In 2009, commenced manufacturing operations and began customer shipments. Since that time, Liquid Robotics has produced and deployed Wave Gliders around the globe from NOAA PMEL missions in the Arctic to Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Antarctica mission in the Southern Ocean.[8]

In June 2011, Liquid Robotics received $22M investor funding from VantagePoint Capital Partners and Schlumberger, Ltd.[9] In parallel, Bill Vass,[10] former CIO of Sun Microsystems, was named President and CEO.[11] Later in 2011, the Pacific Crossing (PacX)[12] adventure was launched from San Francisco when four Wave Gliders were sent on an unprecented journey across the Pacific to Japan and Australia.

Approximately one year later in June 2012, Liquid Robotics Oil & Gas, a joint venture between Schlumberger[13] and Liquid Robotics, was created to provide Wave Glider services to oil & gas customers worldwide. The same year, a Wave Glider named Papa Mau, became the first autonomous ocean robot to cross the Pacific Ocean.[14] A few months later in February 2013, another PacX Wave Glider named Benjamin, arrived in Bundaberg, Australia setting the Guinness World Record for "the longest journey by an unmanned autonomous surface vehicle on the planet."[15]

In March 2013, Riverwood Capital Partners led a $45M Series E financing round[16] with participation from existing investors, Schlumberger[17] and Vantage Point Capital Partners.[18] Following this investment, the Company announced the next generation[19] Wave Glider SV3. Following this success in 2014, Gary Gysin was named as President[20] and CEO and soon after Boeing Defense, Space and Security and Liquid Robotics signed a multi-year teaming agreement to advance solutions for Maritime Defense.[21]

The Company has employed over 100 employees and produced a total of over 350 Wave Gliders.

Wave Glider

Underwater picture of Wave Glider above

The Wave Glider’s key innovation is its’ ability to harvest energy from ocean waves[22] to provide essentially limitless propulsion, providing a persistent presence at sea. Wave Gliders run totally on renewable energies; using wave and solar energy for propulsion and solar power for communications, navigation and computing. It requires no fuel, no manpower, produces no emissions, and has a zero carbon impact on the environment.

The Wave Glider is composed of two parts, the float (size of a surfboard), and a sub with a wing rack. Connected by 8-meter (26 ft.) umbilical tether, the float is on the surface of the ocean where conditions are the harshest while the sub is below the surface protected from the severe conditions. This two part system enables the Wave Glider to get its’ propulsion by harvesting the up and down motion of the waves converting this energy into forward thrust.

The Wave Glider is equipped with sophisticated computers for navigation, communication systems (Iridium satellite, Wi-Fi, Cellular), and state of the art ocean sensors to measure the environment around it. It supports a wide variety of scientific and commercial sensors have been integrated to measure weather, sea conditions, water quality and chemistry, bottom topography and currents. Acoustic microphones and arrays enable real time communications from subsea to space and can detect passing ships and capture vocalizations of whales and monitor other mammals.

The Wave Glider’s Software Operating Environment, Regulus, and the Wave Glider Management System (WGMS)[23] combine to manage and control the vehicles. Regulus is based on Linux, Java and industry standard services with client plug-ins and APIs. Autonomy including vessel detection and avoidance, remote piloting and navigation, data delivery and management are advanced operating capabilities included in the Wave Glider.

As of March, 2016, Wave Gliders have collected traveled over 1 million nautical miles at sea.[24]

Industry Associations

Liquid Robotics is a member of the following Maritime and Defense associations: Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA),[25] the Navy League,[26] Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI),[27] the Consortium for Ocean Leadership,[28] Marine Technology Society (MTS),[29] World Ocean Council,[30] and International Association of Geophysical Contractors Maritime Technology Society[31] (IAGC).

Accomplishments

Throughout the Company’s history, Liquid Robotics has received recognition for its revolutionary innovation and ability to advance the way the world observes, monitors and protects the ocean. A few of the most notable awards are: The Economist World Ocean Innovation Challenge (2015),[32] Fast Company Top 50 Most Innovative Companies (2014),[33] the Edison Awards Gold Medal for Energy (2013),[34] World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2013),[35] Robotics Business Review Top 50 Robotics Companies (2012-2014),[36] Savannah Ocean Exchange Gulfstream Navigator Award (2011),[37] Wall Street Journal names Liquid Robotics as one of the Most Innovative Technologies (2010).[38]

PacX Competition

Chlorophyll fluorescence data collected during the PacX journey

Liquid Robotics created the PacX Challenge[39] to foster new scientific discoveries in ocean science. On November 17, 2011, Liquid Robotics launched four Wave Gliders from San Francisco to cross the Pacific Ocean and travel to Australia and Japan.

PacX Challenge

As part of the PacX journey, Liquid Robotics invited scientists, students and educators to compete in the PacX Challenge competition, which recognized the most innovative application of the PacX ocean data. The PacX Challenge Prize consisted of a $50,000 research grant (courtesy of BP, the exclusive oil and gas industry supporter of the PacX Challenge)[40] and six months of Wave Glider time, valued at over $300,000 from Liquid Robotics.

On September 24, 2013 at the Oceans '13 conference in San Diego, Dr. Tracy Villareal of the University of Texas at Austin, was announced as the Grand Prize winner of the PacX Challenge,[41] for his research on a comparison of scientific spatial data collected from U.S. satellite streams to in-situ or surface data collected by the four PacX Wave Gliders. The other three finalists were: Dr. J. Michael Beman, University of California, Merced Dr. Nicole Goebel, University of California, Santa Cruz Dr. Elise Ralph, Independent Oceanographer, Boston, Massachusetts.

PacX Guinness World Record

On May 15, 2013 Liquid Robotics was awarded the Guinness World Record for "the longest journey of an unmanned autonomous surface vehicle on the planet". "Benjamin Franklin", the Wave Glider named in honor of one of the United States’ founding fathers and the oceanographer who discovered and named the Gulf Stream Current, traveled farther than any other unmanned autonomous surface vehicle - land or sea. Amassing a total of 7939 nautical miles (14,703 km) for his trans-Pacific crossing, Benjamin is the second PacX Wave Glider (Papa Mau was the first) to complete the treacherous yearlong adventure to Australia. Ben began his journey on November 17, 2011 from California’s San Francisco Bay and navigated on a pre-programmed route across the high seas battling shark attacks, overcame severe currents and ended his travels navigating through Cyclone Freda (a Category 4 cyclone) to reach the southernmost part of the Great Barrier Reef. He arrived at Lady Musgrave Island near Bundaberg, Australia.

Partnerships

Schlumberger

In June 2012, Liquid Robotics and Schlumberger announced the creation of Liquid Robotics Oil & Gas (LROG); a joint venture develops services for the oil and gas industry using Wave Gliders. The joint venture combines Liquid Robotics Wave Glider technology with Schlumberger’s oil and gas expertise and industry knowledge to integrate and deploy new solutions for customers worldwide. Liquid Robotics and Schlumberger have equal ownership of the joint venture. Liquid Robotics provides fleets of Wave Gliders together with relevant engineering, piloting and maintenance expertise, while Schlumberger brings their upstream technology and market leadership. The joint venture will be the exclusive distributor of Wave Glider products and services to oil and gas customers worldwide.

Boeing Defense, Space and Security

In September 2014, Liquid Robotics and Boeing Defense, Space and Security signed a multi-year agreement to enhance the Wave Gliders capabilities. Based on the Wave Glider design, Boeing and Liquid Robotics developed the Sensor Hosting Autonomous Remote Craft (SHARC). The SHARC delivers continuous maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions for up to a year without fuel or manpower. Its low profile and ability to conduct continuous patrols using autonomous navigation, gives the SHARC unique access to undersea, air and space domains. It requires only a single, shore-side operator to monitor and control large fleets.

Strategic Advisory Board

References

  1. ↑ "How It Works". Liquid Robotics.
  2. ↑ "Who we are". Liquid Robotics.
  3. ↑ "About us the team". Jupiter Research Foundation.
  4. ↑ "About Us". Jupiter Research Foundation.
  5. ↑ "Roger Hine LinkedIn". LinkedIn.
  6. ↑ "Who we are". Liquid Robotics.
  7. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Company History". Liquid Robitcs.
  8. ↑ "About the Arcitc Wave Glider". PMEL NOAA.
  9. ↑ "Liquid Robotics, Innovative Developer of Wave-Powered Autonomous Marine Drones, Raises $22 Million in Funding". Liquid Robotics.
  10. ↑ "LinkedIn Bill Vass". LinkedIn.
  11. ↑ "Liquid Robotics names Sun exec CEO, raises $22M". BizJournals.
  12. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Ocean Robots Embark on World Record Journey Across Pacific Ocean to Foster new Scientific Discoveries". Liquid Robotics.
  13. ↑ "Liquid Robotics and Schlumberger Form Oil & Gas Joint Venture". Schlumberger.
  14. ↑ "Seafaring robot braves sharks to scoop world record". Blogs.Nature.
  15. ↑ "Longest journey by an unmanned autonomous surface vehicle". Guinness World Records.
  16. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Closes $45 Million Series E Funding to Accelerate Growth in Worldwide Sales and Ocean Data Services". Liquid Robotics.
  17. ↑ "Schlumberger Home". Schlumberger.
  18. ↑ "Vantage Point Home Page". Vantage Point.
  19. ↑ "Wave Glider SV3". Liquid Robotics.
  20. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Names Gary Gysin as President and CEO". Yahoo Finance.
  21. ↑ "Boeing, Liquid Robotics to cooperate on maritime surveillance". Reuters.
  22. ↑ "How It Works". Liquid Robotics.
  23. ↑ "Wave Glider Software Architecture". Liquid Robotics.
  24. ↑ "Liquid Robotics' Ocean Robots Surpass One Million Nautical Miles at Sea". Liquid Robotics.
  25. ↑ "AFCEA Homepage". AFCEA.
  26. ↑ "Navy League Home Page". Navy League.
  27. ↑ "AUVSI Home Page". AUVSI.
  28. ↑ "Ocean Leadership Homepage". Ocean Leadership.
  29. ↑ "MTS Homepage". MTS.
  30. ↑ "World Ocean Council Homepage". World Ocean Council.
  31. ↑ "International Association of Geophysical Contractors Maritime Technology Society Homepage". International Association of Geophysical Contractors Maritime Technology Society.
  32. ↑ "Ocean Innovation Challenge: Time to innovate". The Economist.
  33. ↑ "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2014". Fast Company.
  34. ↑ "2013 Edison Awards Winners". Edison Awards.
  35. ↑ "Technology Pioneers 2013". Weforum.
  36. ↑ "Liquid Robotics named to Robotics Business Review (RBR) Top 50 Robotics Companies". Liquid Robotics.
  37. ↑ "Savannah Ocean Exchange Heralds Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider, Winner of the $100,000 Gulfstream Navigator Award 2011". PR Newswire.
  38. ↑ "The Winners, Category by Category". The Wall Street Journal.
  39. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Ocean Robots Embark on World Record Journey Across Pacific Ocean to Foster new Scientific Discoveries". Liquid Robotics.
  40. ↑ "BP to Fund Research Grant Component of PacX Project". Tech News.
  41. ↑ "Liquid Robotics Announces PacX Challenge Grand Prize Winner". Market Wired.

External links

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