Connecting Seafloor to Space: Liquid Robotics

“We are building the Digital Ocean to enable economic growth, increase security, and ensure the sustainability of our planet.”

The ocean is the last great frontier. It covers most of the Earth’s surface, produces 70% of our oxygen, and is a significant source of food and jobs. It’s also an increasingly contested battlespace, as nations seek to protect their waters and resources. The ocean will undergo a profound transformation over the next decade to address these problems. Sensors, connectivity, cloud computing—the same technology that has revolutionized the terrestrial world is coming to the ocean.

Sunnyvale, California based Liquid Robotics designs and manufactures Wave Gliders^®, the first wave, and solar-powered autonomous ocean robots. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Liquid Robotics was founded in 2007 and the company helps solve critical problems for the defense, commercial, and science customers.

The Economist and the World Economic Forum are a few industry notables who have recognized Liquid Robotics for their pioneering technology that is fundamentally changing the way the world accesses, collects and monitors ocean data through the innovative use of ocean robots.

Reimagining Ocean Monitoring and Operations

Energy harvesting and propulsion are critical for unmanned ocean robots operating in the middle of the ocean. Liquid Robotics’ engineers answered these challenges with the Wave Glider. It delivers greater energy harvesting, additional propulsion, and new capabilities which expand the range of applications and solutions available to customers.

The Wave Glider, an unmanned ocean robot, is the essential technology for this transformation. Sitting on the surface, the Wave Glider is the only unmanned system capable of collecting and communicating ocean data, real-time, through unpredictable conditions, for up to one year. It connects subsea data and communicates it to satellites and land, creating an ocean network. Imagine this ocean network connecting billions of sensors, manned and unmanned systems, and satellites above, a place where data is available on demand, around the clock.

The Wave Glider revolutionizes how we explore and understand the world’s oceans by gathering data in ways or locations previously too costly or challenging to operate. Powered by wave and solar energy, the Wave Glider is an autonomous, unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that operates individually or in fleets delivering real-time data for up to a year with no fuel.

The Wave Glider: Unmanned Robots Powered By Nature

Defense: Undersea Threats are Escalating, Navies of the world face shrinking budgets, aging technology, and expanding threats from undersea. The Wave Glider platform is a persistent and highly durable unmanned surface vehicle that can host or tow a range of sensors, giving defense customers access to real-time maritime data.

Maritime surveillance: Most Maritime Incursions Go Undetected. The ocean remains a treacherous and vast area to monitor, deliver help, or enforce the law. Governments seeking to control maritime borders, minimize illegal trafficking, and protect ocean ecosystems face daunting surveillance challenges. Shift the balance in your favor with the Wave Glider.

Environmental Assessment: You have a huge coverage area, lots of variables, and a limited budget to do your job. Repairing and maintaining existing infrastructure is difficult, slow, and costly. Remove these roadblocks with less risk and cost, with the Wave Glider.

Oil and Gas: Offshore Operations are Risky and Expensive. Gathering oceanographic data for everything from pre-exploration to post-operations is expensive, inflexible, and unreliable, especially in deep water. Liquid Robotics solves

these challenges for the Oil & Gas industry with applications that address: meteorology/oceanography, monitoring, seismic, and subsea communication needs.

Folks Raving About Liquid Robotics

“Wave Gliders provide a platform for gathering data over longer durations for a fraction of the cost of ships. Using fleets of Wave Gliders to better understand the health of our fisheries, could have a massive economic impact.”

- Hannes Zietsman, CSIR

“Our work with Wave Gliders as communications gateways achieves a long-sought goal of collecting near real-time seismic and other observables from the deep ocean floor. Implementing a system with this transformative technology is now a practical and affordable matter.”

- Jonathan Berger, Emeritus, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California San Diego

“The future of ocean research and monitoring requires the cooperation of many unmanned vehicles and instruments. The long duration and flexibility of vehicles like the Wave Glider play a key role for MBARI, allowing us to better use robotics and other sensors to advance a persistent presence in the ocean.”

- Brian Kieft, Software Engineer, MBARI

Greet the Chief

Gary Gysin, President, and CEO: As President and CEO, Gary is leading Liquid Robotics through a period of unprecedented growth and industry recognition. With more than thirty years of executive experience, Gary has delivered worldwide revenue growth and established market leadership for innovative technology, renewable energy, and cloud computing companies. As Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Silver Spring Networks, he led the transformation of how utility companies and cities measure, monitor, and manage energy usage by leveraging IP networking technologies to build Smart Grids. Prior to Silver Spring Networks, Gary was President/CEO of Asempra Technologies and has served in a number of executive positions at companies such as McData Corporation, Volera, PGSoft, Crosswise Corporation, WorldTalk and Touch Communications.

Gary serves as a Council Member on the Oceans and National Security Initiative for the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, member of Alliance of CEOs, Board of Directors for the World Ocean Council and as a Commissioner for the Global Information Infrastructure Policy Organization (GIIC). Gary earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

“We make the Wave Glider^®, the most experienced ocean surface robot on the planet because, at Liquid Robotics, we believe that the Digital Ocean is essential to the future of our planet.”