Re: Solar cells

[hylands@ibm.net (Jon Hylands)]

On Mon, 8 Feb 1999 22:03:42 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>Mike here from Malaysia,
>I got to thinking about power requirements for our vehicles. Has
>anyone seen any application of solar cellls to help power an
>underwater vehicle?

There's been a small amount of research on using solar-charged
autonomous underwater vehicles. They basically look lilke a normal
AUV, except the top is covered with solar cells. They troll along the
bottom for a while, until the battery gets low, and then they surface,
and sit at the surface until the surface charges the batteries again.

Note that this only works for very small AUVs, and it takes a day or
two of full sun to recharge the batteries, and they are *very*
effecient (read: very expensive)...

Later,
Jon