Biggest. Waterbug. Ever.

New York harbor was invaded by the biggest waterbug ever seen today. Well, strictly speaking it isn't a bug - it just looks like one. But it is a very interesting concept - a prototype for a whole new type of seagoing vessel. It's called a Wave Adaptive Modular Vehicle, or WAM-V. The full-sized prototype visited New York today.

NEW YORK - Pity the fisherman or sailor who staggers on deck in the morning and through bleary eyes sees a giant water spider, legs akimbo and buzzing ominously, coming at him.

No cause for alarm, however. It's just Proteus, a so-called Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel designed for everything from military uses to biological studies, ocean exploration and sea rescue.

The spindly catamaran is so efficient that it can travel 5,000 miles — farther than across the Atlantic — on one load of diesel fuel.

Daniel Basta, director of the National Marine Sanctuaries for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, said the lightweight, low-cost and modular craft is well suited to scientific and environmental purposes using technology that is itself smaller and less cumbersome.

"Proteus will be able to launch and recover automatic vehicles, do remote vehicle operations, it will be tested for standard dive support operations, putting instruments on the bottom, collecting data — all the things that we currently do in one form or another, but most likely more cheaply, effectively and probably better."

The brainchild of Ugo Conti, an Italian-born engineer, the WAN-V is meant to be a versatile and efficient vehicle that can be reconfigured at the drop of a hat. Pretty neat. Conti and his wife, Isabella, co-founded Marine Advanced Research, Inc., the company that produces the WAM-V. Their website with pictures and a lot of information on the WAM-V can be found here. That's one slick waterbug.

categories News, Technology | Gaius Thursday, 6 September , 2007

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