DailyDirt: Robots That Save Lives

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Apr 19th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Robots are becoming essential tools for all sorts of tasks. Some jobs that simply can't be done by people are perfect for remote-controlled machines. As a tribute to our hard-working metal friends, here's a short list of some bots that are making the world a safer place.

A couple of remote-controlled iRobot Packbots have checked out some of the most dangerous parts of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto... [url]
Inspections of natural gas lines are usually performed by "pipeline inspection gauges" -- also called PIGs. An intelligent snake-like robot from Carnegie Mellon University is able to explore pipes that were previously "unpiggable" by lesser instruments. [url]
A few different remote-controlled firefighters have been developed to extinguish fires that people can't even approach. Too bad these firefighting robots aren't autonomous yet. [url]
To discover more interesting robot-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: fukushima daiichi, pipeline inspection gauges, robots
Companies: carnegie mellon university, irobot

6 Comments

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btr1701 (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 5:42pm

Machines
You can post all the feel-good robot stories you like, but that won't change the fact that 3 billion human lives will end on August 29th, 2018, and that the survivors of the nuclear fire will live only to face a new nightmare...

...the war against the Machines.
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Pixelation, 19 Apr 2011 @ 5:48pm

Just wait until they start using PIGs for colonoscopies.

Are you "unpiggable"?
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Michael Ho (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 6:12pm

Re: Machines
Actually.. it looks like Judgment Day is supposed to be here in a couple days:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)#Terminator:_The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles

A ccording to the TSCC timeline, April 19th 2011 is when Skynet is turned on and the machines attack on the 21st....
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 19 Apr 2011 @ 11:59pm

Re: Machines
Nonsense! Nostradamus predicted it would all end in July 1999.

Or actually September 1999, because amazing seer he was, he failed to predict the change from Julian to Gregorian calendars.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2011 @ 3:45pm

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
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pepe, 30 Nov 2011 @ 7:22am

robots
this is a good sit to go to uner our robots that saved lives
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