A British start-up has sent a surfboard-sized robot into a Category five hurricane to see how it would battle 150mph winds.
The tech, called C-Star, are classed as Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV).
They are four-foot long, roughly the size of a surfboard, and are propelled by wind vessels.
Seven of the unmanned drones launched to collect and use time-sensitive data about the hurricane.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) a Category five storm is classified as “major” meaning there would be catastrophic damage.
The Plymouth-based start-up, Oshen, have collaborated with them on the project.
The drones were sent off from the coast of the Virgin Islands on the 31 August and on the 28 September, one of them managed to transmit and capture vital data.
It measured the hurricane strength, with gusts of over 150mph, in Storm Humberto’s eyewall, reports Need To Know.
Two other C-Stars penetrated the hurricane to gather further data while the storm became Category four.
The USV also has solar-powered sensors that transmit data every two minutes on wind speed, sea surface temperature, air temperature and pressure, for forecasters and scientists to access.
CEO for Oshen, Anahita Laverack, said: “This exercise so far has been a tremendous success, with the C-Stars successfully providing data in the most powerful category of hurricane.
“This performance exceeded even our expectations and validates the concept of deploying multiple, low-cost sensors to provide persistent monitoring over wide areas.”
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