Liquid Robotics

About Liquid Robotics

Liquid Robotics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, designs and manufactures autonomous, wave-powered unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The company's core offering is the Wave Glider, a marine robot that harvests energy from ocean waves for propulsion and uses solar panels to power its sensor payloads. This design allows the vehicles to operate at sea for extended durations of up to a year, collecting and transmitting ocean data in real-time without the need for fuel or manpower.

The company's origins trace back to 2003 when Joe Rizzi of the Jupiter Research Foundation sought a way to record the songs of humpback whales without disturbing them. This led to a collaboration with mechanical engineer and robotics expert Roger Hine. After years of development, Hine invented the Wave Glider, and in January 2007, he and Joe Rizzi co-founded Liquid Robotics. The firm achieved significant milestones, including a nine-day circumnavigation of Hawaii's Big Island in 2009 and a record-setting trans-Pacific crossing to Australia. In December 2016, Boeing acquired Liquid Robotics to expand its autonomous capabilities for maritime surveillance and seabed-to-space information services.

Liquid Robotics operates on a business model centered on selling its Wave Glider vehicles and providing data services to a diverse client base. The market is segmented into defense and security, commercial, and scientific research. In the defense sector, the Wave Glider, particularly the SHARC variant, is utilized for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and anti-submarine warfare. Commercial applications include environmental monitoring for the oil and gas industry, fisheries management, and maritime surveillance. Scientific and research institutions like NOAA use the platform for weather monitoring, climate change studies, and ocean acidification research. The Wave Glider's architecture consists of a surface float and a submerged sub connected by an umbilical tether, converting wave motion into forward thrust. This platform is highly configurable and can host a wide array of third-party sensors, acting as a real-time communications gateway between undersea, surface, and aerial assets.