美国的七件“国防神器”

Wave Glider SV3

    流动机器人公司（Liquid Robotics）最擅长研制的是用海浪提供能源的机器人平台。也就是说，这种机器人能够在海浪中获得电力，推动自己在海上行进。该公司推出的海浪滑板2号机器人（Wave Glider Surface Vehicle 2）去年创下了一项无人驾驶船只的世界纪录，它从美国旧金山出发，只花了一年多的时间就完成了一次9000多海里的跨太平洋的航行，中间所耗费的能源全靠它从海浪中自己自足。

    流动机器人公司之所以登上此次海空天博览会，不仅仅是由于它的机器人创下的航程纪录。它最新推出的SV3平台比去年横跨太平洋的SV2平台长了2英尺，可以多装载4倍的传感器、计算资源、电池等硬件。该公司的SHARC产品是专门为美国海军定制的版本。由于海洋可以为它提供无尽的能源，而且它自己不会留下任何雷达或声纳足迹，因此美国海军可以把几个SHARC扔到大洋中央，然后就可以经年累月地不管它们了。如果有船只或潜艇进入它的传感器感知范围，它就会通过卫星通知附近舰艇。

Wave Glider SV3

    Liquid Robotics' expertise is wave-powered robotic platforms -- that is, seafaring robots that propel themselves across the ocean by converting energy harvested from the ocean's own waves into propulsion. Their self-sufficient Wave Glider Surface Vehicle 2 set a world record for an ocean crossing by an autonomous watercraft last year when it arrived in Brisbane, Australia, after completing a trans-Pacific crossing that began 9,000 nautical miles away in San Francisco and took just over a year.

    But Liquid Robotics isn't in it for the distance records. Its new SV3 platform is about two feet longer than the SV2 that crossed the Pacific and is now wired up to accommodate something like four times more hardware like sensor payloads, computing resources, or batteries for energy storage. The company's SHARC (that's Sensor Hosting Autonomous Remote Craft) is a version of the aforementioned technology trimmed down and customized for the U.S. Navy. With a limitless power source provided by the ocean itself and no radar or acoustic signature to give it away, the Navy can basically drop its SHARCs in the middle of the ocean and leave them out there for months at a time. If a boat or submarine comes within range of its sensors it can tip off nearby vessels via satellite link.