---
title: "Deployed once, rarely recovered"
url: https://mru.space/use-cases/profiling-floats/
description: "About 900 Argo floats are replaced each year. Mru Field keeps a float's last months of data trustworthy as its processors and memory fail."
---

[Mru](https://mru.space/) / [Mru Field](https://mru.space/field/) / [Use cases](https://mru.space/use-cases/) / Profiling floats and gliders

Ocean · Autonomous Priority

# Profiling floats and gliders

Deployed once, rarely recovered. The battery sets the mission length.

![Argo Arvor profiling float drifting at the sea surface](https://mru.space/_astro/pl03-argo-float.DOQljo1U_Z2wqwqH.jpg)

Argo Arvor profiling float drifting at the sea surface Stéphane Lesbats, Ifremer · CC BY 4.0

900/ year

About this many Argo floats are replaced each year, at about $40,000 each.

Argo Program

Profiling floats dive and surface on their own for years, until their batteries run out. Gliders fly for months between recoveries. Every extra month of good data counts.

Mru Field runs on the processors already in the equipment. When one fails and nobody can come, it continues on the ones left and delivers only results it can check. Status: decision core at TRL 3; first field pilot planned for 2027.

01

## Power runs down

Batteries fade and panels foul. The system has to do less, on purpose, and keep the important part going.

02

## Computers fail one by one

Radiation, heat and age take out processors and memory. Nothing is replaced until the next visit.

03

## The link is thin

Bytes per message, or nothing until the next window. Problems have to be solved on site.

## Three computers. Then two. Then one, still working.

Most redundant systems stop when they lose their majority. Mru Field steps down instead, and says which mode it is in.

3 alive · vote

A B C

Three computers vote. One bad result is outvoted.

2 alive · compare

A B C

Two compare. A known-answer test finds the faulty one.

1 alive · self-check

A B C

The last one checks its own work and keeps profiling until the battery ends, at half speed.

Power

Batteries only

Link

Iridium, at the surface

Visits

Usually never

Service life

Until the battery ends

## Questions

Does Mru Field need new hardware?

No. It is software for the processors you already deploy. It runs beside your control code and decides which computer to trust as parts fail.

Floats are rarely recovered. Why does decay matter?

Because the last months still produce data. Mru keeps checking results as processors and memory fail, so that data stays trustworthy.

How do we start?

Use the form below. We first model your hardware and show what each redundancy design returns over its whole life. Then we plan a pilot on your own equipment.

## Related settings

[All use cases](https://mru.space/use-cases/)

[

Ocean · Surface

### Ocean buoys and moorings

](https://mru.space/use-cases/ocean-buoys/)[

Ocean · Vehicles

### Autonomous underwater vehicles

](https://mru.space/use-cases/auv/)[

Ocean · Seafloor

### Deep-sea observatories

](https://mru.space/use-cases/deep-sea-observatories/)