A tiny wind-powered ocean robot became the first uncrewed vessel to capture data inside a Category 5 hurricane.
A robot no bigger than a surfboard has done what no machine has ever done before.On September 28, a small, wind-powered ocean robot became the first uncrewed surface vehicle to capture and transmit data from inside a Category 5 hurricane.
The breakthrough came during Hurricane Humberto, when one of the four-foot-long vessels, called a C-Star, entered the eyewall of the storm. It became the smallest USV ever to do so, relaying live measurements from the planet’s most dangerous weather zone.NOAA, the United Kingdom-based robotics company Oshen, and the University of Southern Mississippi are operating seven of these vessels this hurricane season to better understand storms and improve forecasting.Sailing into the stormC-Stars are wind-propelled, solar-powered boats equipped with sensors that transmit data every two minutes. They measure wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, temperature, humidity, and sea surface conditions, while also capturing photos and video during missions.During Humberto, three C-Stars entered the storm in 12-hour intervals. One vessel recorded a minimum air pressure of 955 millibars and hurricane-force gusts topping 150 miles per hour. An increase in sunlight, together with the pressure drop, confirmed that the robot had crossed the eyewall and brushed the eye itself.Forecasters at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center cited the data in an official discussion of Humberto on Sunday afternoon.“The C-Stars collected valuable data from the strongest part of Hurricane Humberto and successfully transmitted it in near-real-time,” said Greg Foltz, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab. “This opens up the possibility of more routine use of C-Stars for hurricane data collection in the future.”Racing against hurricanesThe project is not just about endurance inside storms; it’s also about speed.On September 27, the team rushed two C-Stars to the North Carolina coast to track Hurricane Imelda. The vessels were transported from Mississippi and deployed within 48 hours, highlighting how quickly these robots can be repositioned when storms shift paths.“Although Oshen’s work with NOAA will continue until the end of the hurricane season late in November, this exercise so far has been a tremendous success,” said Anahita Laverack, CEO of Oshen.“This performance exceeded even our expectations, and validates the concept of deploying multiple, low-cost sensors to provide persistent monitoring over wide areas.”The data these vessels provide feed directly into NOAA’s Global Telecommunications System, where they can be used immediately by forecasters worldwide. Scientists say that wider use of fleets like C-Stars could be a game-changer for hurricane prediction.For now, the fleet continues to sail across the Atlantic, chasing two of nature’s most powerful forces, wind and water, at their fiercest.
Hurricane Humberto Hurricane Research NOAA C-Star Ocean Robot Data Oshen Robotics Storm Forecasting Uncrewed Surface Vehicle
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