The Birth of an Underwater Pioneer
Redwing is not your average submarine. Developed by Teledyne Marine in partnership with Rutgers University in New Jersey, this ocean glider is about to set off on the world’s first fully autonomous underwater circumnavigation—a mission that’s never been attempted by a robot before.
If you’re picturing spinning propellers or James Bond-style underwater chases, think again. Redwing doesn’t ‘swim’ in the traditional sense. Instead, it moves by adjusting its buoyancy with an internal piston filled with compressed gas. By becoming alternately heavier or lighter than the surrounding water, it gently sinks down to depths of up to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) or rises slowly back to the surface. This distinctive up-and-down, ‘saw-tooth’ motion allows Redwing to progress at about 0.75 knots, or around 0.8 mph—steady wins the race (with patience to spare).
There’s no noisy engine, no need for fuel, and, most importantly, no pointless resistance: Redwing glides silently with the ocean currents, a bit like a submarine sailboat. Small auxiliary propellers are available for course corrections, but they’re rare pinch-hitters, not the star players here.
Engineering for Endurance
Ocean gliders have existed since the 1990s, but none have dared a five-year journey around the globe—until now. So, what’s Redwing’s secret weapon? Supersized batteries, ingeniously packed into its streamlined body. Engineers estimate Redwing can cruise for nearly two years without a recharge, after which it will make a pit stop midway to swap out its energy modules—robotic version of grabbing a coffee and stretching your legs in the middle of a road trip.
Every single day, the mission team—comprised of Teledyne Webb Research scientists and Rutgers students—will communicate with Redwing via satellite. The glider surfaces twice daily, sending back reams of data and picking up fresh navigation orders. It’s a patient, methodical mission: five years, about 45,360 miles (73,000 km), and thousands of meticulously gathered oceanographic measurements.
An Epic Route with a Purpose
Redwing’s route is no shot in the dark. Like its famous forerunner, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, Redwing will trace a loop around the globe: starting from the US East Coast, crossing to the Canary Islands, then to Cape Town, Western Australia, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, possibly Brazil, before looping back to Cape Cod.
This course isn’t just for symbolic value; it traverses little-explored regions where temperature, salinity, and ocean currents remain mysterious. The glider’s onboard instruments will continuously monitor these parameters, generating invaluable data for climatologists and oceanographers.
Storms? No sweat for Redwing. It spends most of its time below the surface, safe from crashing waves. The real threats come from elsewhere:
- Fishing nets
- Cargo ships
- Sharks
- Algae
Researchers are especially wary of biofouling—when algae, shells, and microorganisms latch onto the hull, weighing the glider down and possibly knocking it out of action. Curious sharks can be hazardous too, sometimes drawn by acoustic signals.
“Some gliders have already been lost due to bites,” notes Alexander Phillips from the National Oceanography Centre in the UK.
More Than Just a Submarine: Redwing’s Legacy
Redwing may be modest in size, but its mission is vast. It will harvest millions of measurements on water temperature, currents, and density in regions few ships ever reach. These findings will be instantly shared with universities and schools across the world, helping us better understand the oceans’ role in climate change.
Redwing also carries a message—a celebration of science that’s patient, economical, and discreet. Unlike giant oceanographic vessels burning through tons of fuel, a glider works alone, operated by physics and the pinpoint accuracy of its onboard tech. In the halls of Teledyne Marine, Redwing is already monitored like a cherished crew member: a blinking dot on the screen, somewhere between continents. Rutgers students keep vigil in rotating shifts, day and night, to track every move.
If this epic journey succeeds, Redwing will become the first underwater robot to circumnavigate the globe. A silent, slow, unrelenting triumph—a human-scale circumnavigation conducted beneath the sea.
Paving the Way: Robotic Ocean Pioneers
Recent years have seen several autonomous vehicles push the boundaries of underwater exploration, each one advancing the cause in their own style. Before Redwing, a few quiet pioneers paved the way (and they didn’t always make front-page news):
- In 2009, the American glider Scarlet Knight RU27 (also developed by Rutgers University) crossed the Atlantic in 221 days, linking New Jersey with Galicia, Spain—a world first at the time.
- Two years later, the Seaglider ‘Silbo,’ developed through collaboration between Teledyne Webb Research and the University of the Azores, completed a 3,728-mile (6,000 km) transatlantic journey, proving the robustness of long-distance automatic control systems.
- Then, in 2011, the PacX Wave Glider mission by California startup Liquid Robotics charted a pioneering course—covering nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 km) from San Francisco to Australia, powered solely by wave and solar energy.
These gliders aren’t fast or flashy, but their endurance is extraordinary: they can sail for months, even years, without human intervention. Each one has laid a cornerstone on the path to Redwing’s upcoming trip around the globe—a new chapter in the grand and quiet adventure of ocean robotics.
