An underwater robotic glider built by Rutgers University students and scientists has achieved the first underwater robot crossing, after traveling beneath the waves for 221 days.

Rutgers researchers joined some Spanish colleagues today aboard the "Investigador" ship to recover the drone, after launching it on April 27, 2009 off the coast of New Jersey. The submersible bot made its 4,591-mile journey at the slow but steady pace of 4 centimeters per second.

Named "The Scarlet Knight" for Rutgers sports — despite its fine yellow appearance — RU27 technically already claimed its transatlantic record on Nov. 14 after 201 days at sea. But the Rutgers team clinched the accomplishment after recovering the scarlet lady, and reportedly gave her a dose of champagne to celebrate.

Rutgers University alone has a small underwater fleet of up to seven gliders operating off the coast of New Jersey, with one even cruising around the Antarctic. The U.S. Navy has likewise deployed a number of drone submersibles (not to mention sea mammals), and private companies may also soon send out swarms of underwater explorers for oil prospecting.

Looks like Scarlet won't be too lonely the next time she decides to take a dip.

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I mean, what else, right? RIGHT? Wayne Eyre—the owner—and special effects artist Dean Johnstone—the designer—thought exactly the same. In the immortal words of Gob Bluth: Magic! [Stuff]

There's only one way to know the truth: Get your iPhone 3GS to the pool today, submerge it for a few seconds, and tell us. Come on. You know you want to do it. Send me your test video to jesus@gizmodo.com.

As Cindy L. Van Dover, a marine biologist who has logged hundred of hours in Alvin, puts it:

“Depth is a big deal,” she said. “It’s hard to wax lyrical on the subject because we don’t know what’s there. So we can’t guarantee a discovery. Yet we know that every time we extend our ability to go somewhere, we discover new things about how the planet works, about how life on the planet is adapted.”

Unfortunately and as one might expect, the project's budget has ballooned (titanium alone has had a 5x increase in cost since work began), and researchers are having to get creative to scrape up the necessary funding. So 2015 is now the still somewhat shaky current target date for the bigger, badder sub's first dive. But before then, old Alvin may get some of its successor's new gear (like its titanium crew sphere) until the whole thing comes together. [NY Times]

It's a neat idea that seems straight out of Mr. Wizard. When gliding through warm water, internal chambers filled with wax expand, repositioning internal oil bladders and changing the glider's buoyancy—causing it to sink. Then cold water at lower depths causes the wax chamber to contract, moving the oil back in place allowing the system rises again.

As we understand it, this principle alone would simply make the device go up and down within the water. But adding wings to the torpedo allows it to harness this up down pressure and glide through the water.

During the successful test, the glider covered thousands of kilometers. We wonder how many such devices have been lost to sharks and overzealous fishermen. [BBC][image]

A gemstone set joystick control maneuvers pilots as they pretend to be Jacques Cousteau or Sean Connery (depending on their personal level of coolness and choice of Sean Connery submarine driving character). Sure, the pleasure will run you $1,440,000, but realize that the price includes both the leather seat upgrade and two days of training so you don't kill yourself and make manufacturer U.S. Submarines look bad.

Is it me, or are personal submarines are the official toy of the pretty rich—that sweet spot where consumers want more than a nice sports car but aren't quite moneybags enough to play the "retire" and run a vineyard game? As gadget enthusiasts, death by overzealous octopus beats drinking your liver away with pride any day, but it's a close vote. [nm via gizmowatch]

The U-Boat is lying in just 77 feet of water on the Varne sandbank, just eight miles from Dover. After hitting a mine on April 11, 1918, she sank with all 28 crew on board. And this is the crux of the problem: U-33 has been designated a war grave, which makes it impossible to just blow the problem out of the water.

The possibility of placing a buoy above the wreck was also mooted, but it was thought to be as useful as "putting a speed hump in the fast lane of a motorway," (the UK equivalent to a freeway, where cars travel upwards of 50 mph) as the Varne Bank area is so congested with shipping.

The current plan is to move the sub gently to deeper waters. A vessel has temporarily been stationed above the U-Boat by Trinity House, the body in charge of British shipping lanes and lighthouses, and divers sent down to recce the wreck. The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks. [Daily Mail]

Image of the day [BBC News]

This is the British Royal Navy's newest class of submarine, the Astute. And this is what the nuclear-powered behemoth can do: generate its own air and water; sit in the English Channel and fire cruise missiles at North Africa; but perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the British-built sub is that it will never need to be refuelled throughout its 25-year lifespan, meaning it can sail round the world 40 times without surfacing—if your seamen don't need feeding, that is.

The Brits have put in an initial order for three of the subs—a snip at $2.33 billion each—and each one is expected to enter into service in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The contractor, BAE Systems, in Barrow, says it learned a lot from US sub builder Electric Boat —namely to build sections of the sub vertically (hence the 12-story construction towers at the plant) which saved on manpower. Check the big beast in the gallery below, and the specs after the jump.

Weight: 7,800 tons
Length: 97m
Time to build: 6 years, 4 months
Power: pressurized water reactor, fueled for life
Crew: 98
Astute Combat Management System (ACMS) receives data from the sonars and other sensors and, through advanced algorithms and data handling, displays real time images on the command consoles.
Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile from Raytheon fired from 533mm torpedo tubes (range 1,000 miles, flies at 533mph)
I-band navigation radars
Thales Underwater Systems Sonar 2076
Atlas Hydrographic echosounder, the DESO 25, is capable of precise depth measurements down to 10,000m.
Rolls Royce PWR 2 pressurized water reactor
2 Alsthom turbines
Rolls Royce pump jet propulsor

Alien submarine breaks technical barriers [BBC News]

– Ad Dugdale

No prices here, but I'm sure you can get that laser cannon and robot shark attachment for a few bucks extra. [Thanks, PBJ]

Product Page [Exomos]