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An autonomous robot has completed a record-breaking 9,000 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to Hervey Bay, Australia.
The robot, Papa Mau, is part of a series of Wave Gliders manufactured by Silicon Valley-based startup Liquid Robotics. The group sent four of them to sea on November 17, 2011 -- two to Australia (Papa Mau included), and the other two to Japan.
The overall purpose of Papa Mau's year-long journey was to collect "unprecedented amounts of high-resolution ocean data" that's "never before available over these vast distances or timeframes," according to a Liquid Robotics press release.
The group is opening up the collected data to anyone interested as part of its PacX challenge. As of now, five finalists have been selected. The chosen winner, which the group says will be announced soon, will receive a $50,000 grant and six months' worth of Wave Glider data services to use as part of research proposals.
Papa Mau is the first of the four launched from San Francisco to reach land. The other Australia-bound glider is expected to land sometime in February, CNET reports. Another is expected to reach Japan in June. The fourth was pulled from the water because of mechanical problems.
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