The Future of Environmentally Powered Gliders: Emerging Prospects and Trends

Abstract

To address the endurance limitations of traditional electrically driven underwater gliders, which are constrained by onboard battery energy density, harnessing marine renewable energy for propulsion or supplemental power has emerged as a critical approach to overcoming their operational endurance bottleneck. This paper systematically reviews the research progress on underwater gliders powered by environmental energy sources, such as thermal and solar. It provides an in-depth analysis of the utilization mechanisms, core technologies, and current challenges associated with each energy type, with a focused exploration of technical pathways for achieving energy synergy and enhancing system endurance through multi-energy integration and intelligent energy management. Furthermore, this study is the first to establish a comprehensive technical evaluation framework for environmentally powered gliders from three dimensions: energy coupling, system design, and mission adaptability, offering a systematic reference for subsequent research. The paper also explores the application potential of this technology in advanced scenarios, such as long-term ocean observation and dynamic environmental monitoring. Future efforts should prioritize efficient multi-energy hybridization, dynamic energy management, and mission-adaptive control to comprehensively enhance the endurance and operational reliability of gliders in complex marine environments.

Keywords

Underwater glider / Environmental energy propulsion / Endurance enhancement / Long-term ocean observation

Statement of the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process

During the preparation of this manuscript, the author used Gemini in order to assist with language refinement and content organization. After using this tool, the author reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, S.Z. and R.P.; Methodology, S.Z.; Investigation, S.Z., R.Z. and S.N.; Resources, R.Z.; Data Curation, S.Z.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, S.Z.; Writing—Review & Editing, S.Z., R.P. and S.N.; Visualization, S.Z.; Supervision, R.P.; Project Administration, R.Z.; Funding Acquisition, R.P.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Funding

This work is supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2025M770292); the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Marine Smart Equipment, Fujian Province University (KF-92-25102); the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for Undergraduates of Tianjin University of Technology (202510060002, 202510060025); the Tianjin Municipal Enterprise Technology Commissioner Project (24YDTPJC00860); the Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation Diversified Investment Project (24JCQNJC00290).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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