A Tiny Submarine with an Outsized Mission
Redwing is no bigger than a surfboard—just 8.4 feet long and weighing in at 377 pounds—yet it’s about to etch a new milestone into the long and illustrious history of circumnavigations. And it’s all happening five centuries after Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition famously completed the first voyage around the world (well, his crew did, anyway). Engineered by Teledyne Marine in partnership with Rutgers University (New Jersey), Redwing is about to embark on the world’s first autonomous underwater circumnavigation.
How Does Redwing Glide Underwater?
Redwing isn’t your classic submarine; don’t expect whirring blades or frantic paddling. It moves by tweaking its buoyancy using an internal piston packed with compressed gas, making itself alternately heavier or lighter than the surrounding water—a kind of elevator ride for robots. When heavier, it gently dives as far as 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) deep; when lighter, it rises slowly towards the surface. This up-and-down motion, resembling a slow-motion zigzag, propels Redwing forward at a modest 1.3 km/h (that’s 0.7 knots if you’re keeping score).
No noise, no fuel, and almost zero resistance: Redwing drifts with the currents, using them like a sailor uses the wind. Only when needed does it deploy tiny thrusters to correct its path, but those moments are rare. It’s all about letting physics—plus a dash of patience—do the heavy lifting.
Endurance, Route, and Challenges
The era of glider drones began in the 1990s, but none have ever attempted a journey this long. Redwing’s secret? Supersized batteries snugly packed in its streamlined hull. The engineers expect it to run close to two years on a single charge before a planned pit stop halfway, where new energy modules will be swapped in.
Day in, day out, the mission team—scientists from Teledyne Webb Research and Rutgers students—will communicate with Redwing via satellite. The glider surfaces twice daily to send data and receive fresh orders. It’s a marathon, not a sprint: five years, 45,000 miles (73,000 kilometers), collecting thousands of oceanographic data points along the way.
Redwing will follow a carefully charted route reminiscent of Magellan’s path: departing from the U.S. East Coast, past the Canary Islands, down to Cape Town, skirting along Western Australia, crossing New Zealand, passing the Falklands, perhaps Brazil, and eventually circling back to Cape Cod. This path isn’t just for show—it traverses little-explored waters with poorly understood temperatures, salinity, and ocean currents. Redwing’s onboard instruments will measure these continuously, producing a trove of data gold for climate scientists and oceanographers worldwide.
Gliders like Redwing don’t fear storms. They spend most of their time below waves, shielded from surface chaos. The real hazards lurk elsewhere: fishing nets, cargo ships, sharks, and algae. Of particular concern is biofouling—when algae, shells, and hitchhiking microbes latch onto the hull, weighing the glider down until it can no longer function. There’s also the minor issue of curious sharks, sometimes attracted by acoustic signals.
“Some gliders have already been lost due to bite marks,”
reminds Alexander Phillips from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre. No hard feelings, shark fans—it’s just science.
Pioneers and a Quiet Revolution in Ocean Exploration
This compact sub has a far-reaching mission, gathering millions of data points on ocean temperature, currents, and density across regions few ships dare to visit. These measurements, shared in real time with schools and universities around the world, will help us better understand our oceans’ role in climate change.
At its heart, Redwing also embodies a message: science can be patient, cost-effective, and (dare we say) discreet. Unlike massive research vessels guzzling tons of fuel, a glider operates solo, without a crew, powered by the laws of physics and sharp instruments.
At Teledyne Marine’s offices, Redwing has already become a team member. On their screens, a blinking dot hovers on the map—Redwing, somewhere between continents. Rutgers students take shifts around the clock as the silent traveler continues its journey.
If it succeeds, Redwing will make history as the first underwater robot to circumnavigate the world. A silent, persistent—and yes, stubborn—feat. A circumnavigation on a human scale… only underwater.
Recent years have seen a host of autonomous craft pushing the boundaries of underwater exploration, each in their own quiet way. Before Redwing, there were lesser-known trailblazers: In 2009, the American glider Scarlet Knight RU27, also out of Rutgers, crossed the Atlantic in 221 days, linking New Jersey to Galicia (Spain)—a world first at the time. Two years later, the « Silbo » Seaglider, a collaboration with the University of the Azores, covered 3,730 miles (6,000 kilometers) across the Atlantic, showcasing the long-distance reliability of automatic control systems. And in 2011, the PacX Wave Glider mission, run by California’s Liquid Robotics, pulled off a 10,000-mile (16,000 km) journey from San Francisco to Australia powered solely by wave and solar energy. These crafts are neither fast nor flashy, but their endurance stuns: capable of navigating for months—or even years—without human hands. Each one has paved the way for Redwing’s upcoming round-the-world odyssey, adding a new chapter to oceanic robotic exploration.
John is a curious mind who loves to write about diverse topics. Passionate about sharing his thoughts and perspectives, he enjoys sparking conversations and encouraging discovery. For him, every subject is an invitation to discuss and learn.
