Ocean waves are well-known to be the most hazardous of ocean environmental conditions affecting vessel operations. The vast majority of incidents responded to by the U.S. Coast Guard, injuries and fatalities, and damage to or sinking of vessels (particularly small craft) are waverelated. Recognizing the considerable spatial and temporal variability of waves in coastal areas, research will design and evaluate an easily-deployed, low-cost (e.g., less than $2,000 in large quantities), reasonable life-time (e.g., one year or more) buoy that measures and automatically processes wave data, and relays wave information to nearby vessels. The buoy is called the Vessel Assistance Buoy Wave (VAB-W). It will be developed so that other data can be optionally measured. VAB-W systems will include buoys and low-cost (e.g., less than $200 in large quantities) vessel data receiving and display units. Appropriately making the wave measurements and real-time communications are the two most important research areas.
Potential Commercial Applications: Spatial and temporal variability of waves in coastal areas combined with increasing coastal populations and growing numbers of small craft operators show that the numbers of locations where systems could be used may be in the hundreds or thousands indicating significant commercialization potential. As shown by high public interest in the National Data Buoy Centers real-time wave data, there would be strong public support for VAB-W networks
