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Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Robot pummels roads with water', the Augusta Chronicle says that a hydrodemolition robot is going to restore seven bridges in Georgia. "It's a robot that destroys everything in its path with a crushing stream of water 15 times more powerful than a jackhammer. The robot looks like a street cleaner machine on steroids and is expected to begin use August 1 to resurface seven bridges on Gordon Highway from Walton Way to the bridge at the South Carolina state line." This kind of robot needs only two workers to operate it, instead of 15 workers for a jackhammer, is less noisy and more gentle for the foundations. You'll find more details in this summary."
Why do I think labor groups will be unhappy about this?
Peace and love, y'all
Man, construction unions are unstoppable.
In Soviet Russia, all our base are belong to you!
Can someone direct one of these to SCO Headquarters?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"How about a splash of water on this hot summer day?"
"YayyyyAAIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Does it recycle the water? seems like alot of water to be wasting. But since its the City or State that would be using, its ok to waste water. Altho there will still be 15 people standing around to "supervise" the two people required to run this machine.
Mrs. Everitt said the hydrodemolition robot helps the DOT because it removes faulty concrete but leaves good concrete behind.
So it's a robot that plays God then? I cast you, bad concrete, into the abys from where you shall never return!
Just as long as it doesn't start running wild and judging humans, or there might be a significant oversupply of liquified lawyers.
Beep beep.
Folks who've never lived in a desert don't seem to understand how valuable water is in some parts of the country. While the article mentions that they water is reclaimed later by workers, in someplace like Utah or Arizona, I'm sure thousands of gallons are lost through evaporation before that can happen.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
I saw a report a few years ago about the advantages of using a high-pressure water 'gun' for cutting metal. Some of the advantages was that the cooling was already taken care of, the material was recyclable with a filter, and the edges were already smoothed.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Road-tested hydro-cleaning power from Georgia is coming straight from the street to your dentist's office! Call 1-800-OWW-SHIT for details!
What do we do with the poeple who are replced with automation?
The normal response is there will be 15 people working for the company that makes the automated product, but thats not true.
If I created a device that flips burgers, and cost less then maintaining a staff, people will buy it, and it will replaces millions of workes, far more then it would take to build the things.
I'm not saying we shouldn't automate, I'm just asking what do we do as our jobs per person keeps declining?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Last decade, in Washington State, hydrodemolition was used to "resurface" the Eastbound lanes of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, a couple of miles from the Western end of Interstate 90.
Due to a chain of snafus, the "floating" bridge sunk one Thanksgiving day. Very nearly sunk the brand new Westbound floating bridge right next to it. (Part of the root cause was the storage of hydrodemolition wastewater in the flotation cells of the bridge.)
Some years later, the records of liability were sealed in a court settlement between the state and the contractor.
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When I was 17 I worked construction back up in the NW. In union terms, 'about two' translates roughly, in human terms, to 15 laborers, 4 foremen, 7 union representatives, and 3 strippers (to be brought on site for birthdays, mondays, tuesdays, etc.)
To give you context, compare that to the software world, where 'about two' translates to just you, 4 weeks out of the 20 week projection, a pissed off laptop, and a boss that lives and dies by metrics.
--
mcp.kaaos
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
On the subject, in the dorms there were always people who would go turn on the shower and then go take a 10 minute crap while the water was running... or leave the sink full blast while brushing their teeth.
Ahhh, you could always tell who the Easterners were. "Defrost the turkey? Yah, just leave it in the sink with the water running..."
Of course, there are still a lot of people out West who still don't get it. Watering lawns with what amounts to drinking water? And they wonder why their water bills are so high...
Why does the parent mention Mr. Carvajales said the robot is powered by diesel fuel and has water fed to it from a pressurized pump. The robot travels where it is programmed to go and shoots a stream of semen onto pavement at about 40 to 60 gallons per minute.
I was astounded by the fact that the newspaper's picture has details about the robot. The picture describes the robot as having a water PUMP that brings water to the robot. It's ingenious. Finally, a method by which we can transfer water. I mean I would have thought that maybe a Cadre of Trained Monkeys would have brought water little by little to the robot, but NO, a pump has now replaced their job. Its pure genius. Finally, a newspaper that publishes that facts that we want to know about and NEED to know about. I'm subscribing to this one!
I can se it now, a house is on fire. they turn on the pump, and 10 seconds later the house is a big pile of soggy wood..in the neighbors yard.
;)
but at least the fire would be out.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If they could figure out a way to use the old concrete with the waste water to immediatly make new concrete it would be like a Zamboni for the highway.
This story reminded me of how when I was a kid (about 6 - 14 or so) I would take the garden hose and one of those gun-shaped attachments to my mom's garden and explore the excavatory power of water.
At one point I had a very large system of trenches about a half foot deep dug through the flowers that went on for quite a distance.
Needless to say, the local authorities (mom) weren't thrilled with this "science." They all said I was mad. They called me crazy. er...
Just the thing to get the dried out coke and cigarette ash off my keyboard. I just hope it's powerful enough!
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Perhaps I am one of the few Civil Engineers who find myself reading /. So +karma to the editors for bringing this article.
I still would like to know how it removes the concret and doesn't dammage the rebar. When you start getting aligator cracking in concrete roads, water has more than likely reached the rebar, rusting it.
Some newer road specs require that the rebar be coated with epoxy. This cuts down on rust, and may allow for rebar reuse in the case stated with the article.
--C. Alan, PE
Alright, I'm sure someone has the answer to this... what makes this thing a 'robot' as opposed to say... just a big fscking tool?
I mean, it still takes to people to operate it, so it's by no means autonomous.
As0k
Self improvement is masturbation... therefore masturbation is self improvement...*zip*