Autonomous Vehicles for Wave Energy Site Characterisation and monitoring in the Atlantic areas: North Scotland and Portugal

Surface autonomous marine robots allow the collection of environmental data for weeks or months at a time in difficult to reach or extreme oceanic environments. Wave glider technology has improved in recent years and is now capable of carrying instruments from different manufacturers¹, such as ADCP, wave modules, and acoustic sensors².

Here we investigate the suitability of surface based robotic platforms for the collection of environmental data for the renewable energy industry.

The Waveglider robotic platform was chosen for this study, representing one of the most advanced platforms in its class. Two sites were chosen: Farr point in North Scotland and Nazare in Portugal. Both study sites are potential locations for wave energy development. We present the results of two simultaneous field campaigns using Waveglider technology. Of particular importance to the study were data integrity and accuracy, platform ability, performance and durability and risk.

The project’s main aims were to test the platform’s capabilities and collect wave data from two wave energy lease sites. The wave data from the Waveglider are compared to nearshore wave height and period data from simultaneous overhead passes by the altimeter satellite AltiKa³. In addition, Waverider buoys were also deployed and recording wave characteristics at both sites visited by the Waveglider. We present the preliminary inter-comparison between the three wave datasets at both sites and assess the performance of the Waveglider technology.