Creating a Wave-Powered Robot

In 2008 a 9.5-meter catamaran, the Suntory Mermaid II, traveled from Honolulu, Hawaii to Wakayama, Japan using two fins that converted wave energy into forward motion. Despite the success of this Wave Devouring Propulsion System, little has been published about how it works. This is somewhat surprising since a wave-powered boat design would be ideal for a sensor platform that could travel over a wide area for an extended period without refueling. The goal of this project was to create a working model based on this method, and to analyze its performance. We will present our results to date and plans for future improvement.