UPDATE 3/21/11: Story in BusinessWeek Magazine about Liquid Robotic’s founder Roger Hine. Corrects venture capital investment upwards to $23.1 million. The article also told of the sale of 60 wave gliders for use in the Gulf of Mexico to track oil spill movement.

Liquid Robotics, inventor of the Wave Glider which converts the up-and-down motion of waves into forward thrust, making it possible to propel the buoy indefinitely without relying on batteries or other power sources thereby enabling very long missions, has received $18 million from unknown sources.

Applications for the Wave Glider include port and harbor security, search and rescue, climate science, protected area monitoring, pollution detection (BP purchased two gliders) to name a few.