Two hurricanes approaching Hawaii are causing everyone to take safety measures, except a robot, which is swimming in toward the storms and tweeting photos of them along the way.
The robot, called Holoholo, is a Liquid Robotics Wave Glider that is autonomously traveling towards hurricanes Iselle and Julio, storms that are believed to be threats for the Big Island, according to CNET.
Liquid Robotics from Silicon Valley is responsible for the creation of Holoholo, a Wave Glider SV3 designed to let researchers and marine industry companies investigate open seas. The self-powered data center can be used for months at a time, and like other SV3s, it features a hybrid propulsion system that can power it with solar energy or power from waves. A vectored thruster also gives the machine the ability to travel when the ocean is calm, as well as in high seas.
Iselle will be the first direct hurricane that Hawaii is set to experience in 22 years, with the last being Hurricane Iniki in 1992, NBC News reported. The island experienced high demand for bottled water and supplies in preparation for the Category 1 storm, which is expected to impact Thursday night.
"It's a fairly potent hurricane by Hawaiian standards," Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said.
Julio is still on course to hit Hawaii Sunday night, and rose to a Category 2 early Thursday, NBC News reported. Roth said, however, that this storm is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before it arrives at the island.
Hawaii has issued tropical storm warnings for Oahu, Kauai, and Maui, as well as a flash flood warning for the whole island chain.
Holoholo weighs 270 pounds and comes with underwater wings, a package of sensors, and a power management system designed for helping on-board servers that are always collecting and studying data about sea conditions. These servers then transmit the data through satellite communications. The robot can be used by multiple people at once, and they can collect and process data at the same time while doing so independently of each other, CNET reported.
The $300,000 SV3 is used by a variety of organizations, such as oil and gas industries, fisheries, coast guards and the military. Bill Vass, CEO of Liquid Robotics, said last year that the robot has an architecture that makes it similar to the Amazon Web Services, the cloud-server system of the e-commerce company, but a version used in the ocean.
