A Twisty Maze Of Sewerbot Links, All Different

skids writes "Look before you sit! Sewer systems all over the world are under seige by robots laying fiber to the curb -- and beyond. There's even a standards body forming. (Doesn't that consitute a one-level recursion of 'pipes carrying filth'?)" It's been a while since we last mentioned these things.

Comments

Why use sewer lines?

[Jason Pollock]

Sewer lines are dirty, nasty confined places, do we really need the roto-rooter guy taking out our broadband connection?

Everyone sees roads continually being torn up to lay cable. Why don't the municipalities lay a "data pipe" to go along with the gas and sewer lines.

That way, there's a maintained pipe for power and data to run down. The city rents space, and you don't have roads being torn up anymore. Instead of once per carrier per service, it's torn up once period! New services become a _lot_ cheaper because you don't have to pay to repave the roads!

Cities would love it because they get a steady income, companies love it because it doesn't involve insane amounts of capex... Win all around?

Jason Pollock

Steam Tunnel Repair Robot

[coloth]

These robots reminded me of W.I.S.O.R., a robot built by Honeybee Robotics to repair the ancient steam pipes under New York's streets.

Very interesting to anyone reading this would be a docudrama about the creation of W.I.S.O.R. This is a cross between Pi, 2001, and Junkyard Wars.

Of peripheral, yet substantial interest is Honeybee's RoboTender, a robotic bartender.

Re:security

[myov]

A few years ago, the most of the cable system in Ontario (as well as other ISP's) lost internet access when the fiber lines were cut. The lines ran along railway right-of-way to the @home connection in the U.S.

One night, two drunk guys decided to dig up telecom cables and sell the copper (not realizing it's all fiber). In the process, they cut the primary and backup lines.