Wave-Powered Profiling Float

A profiling float that stays below the surface indefinitely, controls its depth, and harvests energy from wave motion, with no surface expression. A heave plate couples to the near-surface wave field and a tethered pod of turbines turns the relative motion into power. Simulations and tank tests produced a tethered two-body design and a method for sizing it to expected wave conditions. Feasibility study with Michael Jakuba and Dana Yoerger at the WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory, funded by ONR.

Research Products

Paper: Design proposal and feasibility analysis for a near-surface wave-powered profiling float Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2024, Shomberg, Jakuba, and Yoerger
Paper: Feasibility of a near-surface wave-powered profiling float for extended fully submerged autonomous deployments OCEANS 2022 Hampton Roads, Shomberg, Jakuba, and Yoerger
Code: OceanWaveLib MATLAB wave time series used in the simulations
Talk: Feasibility of a near-surface wave-powered profiling float OCEANS 2022, Hampton Roads, VA

Diagram of a heave plate tethered to a ring of turbines, and a control timing sketch — The proposed float (left) and its control concept (right). The heave plate follows the waves while the pod holds depth.

Tank test setup with labeled load cell, oscillator, tether, turbine, and pod, beside two plots — Tank test rig (left) and measured against simulated pod velocity gain and turbine power (right).