UC San Diego

The Wirewalker is a vertical profiling system that is driven by ocean waves along a cable using its mechanical cam. All onboard power is dedicated to instrumentation, but battery capacity remains one of the main limitations of Wirewalker deployments. A custom electric motor-generated called the Livewire was built by the same lab that created Wirewalkers. Its purpose is to replace the Wirewalker rectifying cam. Using ocean wave regenerative braking, the Livewire will provide both motion and charging. The mechanism for doing so is like the cam- the Livewire either brakes or allows the cable to freely rotate its idler wheel. This paper discusses my successful development of a foundational data acquisition and control system for the Livewire that uses depth and direction data from a CTD and Hall effect sensors to regulate motion. Next steps are implementing a charge circuit and four quadrant motor control.