How to Detect Dirty Water? Use This Robotic SnakeTakepart.com January 24, 2015
Our future robot overlords just got a little scarier.
Researchers in Switzerland are developing a robot that slithers and swims like a snake, and they’re planning to release it in Lake Geneva within the next few years.
But ophidiophobes, relax: It’s not a cruel joke plotted by mad scientists. The machine, nicknamed Envirobot, will be used to detect contaminants in fresh water. The data it collects using a cellular or wireless network will help researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne study pollution.
“We would like to follow the [chemicals] going toward the pollution and see where the maximum concentration is,” robotics engineer Alessandro Crespi told Popular Science. It's just like a dog sniffing for a treat, except the snakebot will follow chemical spills or fertilizer runoff.
Biologists originally used the AmphiBot—a machine that moves like an animal—to study the neurobiology of amphibians. This pollution-sniffing reiteration is larger and a lot smarter.
To make the machine waterproof, the scientists used 3D-printed epoxy resins. Fears aside, the snakebot could benefit polluted and farming cities.
Nitrate from fertilizer runoff is linked to health risks. This month, Des Moines, Iowa announced its plan to sue neighboring counties for excessive nitrate levels in two rivers where the city gets its drinking supply. Farm runoff also promotes algal growth that causes tumors in marine life such as green sea turtles.
But did the scientists really have to model the robot after a snake?
“[A snake is] really, really excellent in [navigating] cluttered systems or anything sort of disorganized,” biologists Henry Astley told Popular Science.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/detect-dirty-water-robotic-snake-140216734.html
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