Robocones

Anonymous Meoward writes "Researchers at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln have come up with robotic traffic barrels ('bollards', for our British readers) that can be repositioned by remote control, thus minimizing a road worker's time in harm's way. Apparently, the barrels can be grouped and positioned by an autonomous 'shepherd' unit, that is also smart enough to also remove an errant barrel from its herd. The barrels themselves are about as intelligent as.. well, orange barrels. Okay, let's cue the more obvious jokes..." Reader zombieflesheater submitted this previous attempt to mobilize road furniture.

Comments

Practical or somebody's thesis?

[grub]

"Deploying and retrieving highway markers on open roads is hazardous so the robots will reduce risks for workmen," researcher Shane Farritor said."

Are there statistics anywhere on how many workers are killed or injured while moving cones every year?
The article mentions risk without refering to hard data so it seems like a solution in search of a problem. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just want to know how they qualify the risk they mention or if it's a neat university project solely for the sake of being a neat university project.

Re:Practical or somebody's thesis?

[Woogiemonger]

Are there statistics anywhere on how many workers are killed or injured while moving cones every year? The article mentions risk without refering to hard data so it seems like a solution in search of a problem. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just want to know how they qualify the risk they mention or if it's a neat university project solely for the sake of being a neat university project.

See, here's the disconnect between book smarts and street smarts, literally. Have you ever tried to cross the New Jersey Turnpike when dense traffic is going as high as 90mph? Ever play frogger? Having a way to move cones without risk is an obviously good idea. The only thing that worries me is a driver getting distracted from looking at the new technology.

Re:Practical or somebody's thesis?

[Sapwatso]

What would really be helpful is construction zone signs that could be switched on and off remotely when people were actually working. At least in upstate NY, the work zone signs usually seem to be indicating that work may at some point have happened, or will happen eventually, so why don't you slow down just in case.

Not that speeding in work zones is justified, but I'm sure more people would slow down if they knew the signs actually meant something.

Avoiding Cars...

[LostCluster]

This seems like a great idea for spreading out cones in a lane that's already closed, but what's there to warn drivers that a usually-stationary cone is about to move when there's no orange-vested human picking them up?

Reminds me of Toy Story 2

[earthforce_1]

Remember the animated toys causing a huge pileup while crossing a busy street disguised as traffic cones?

I can also see somebody hacking into the control frequencies for these things and pulling evil pranks, which may kill somebody.

Just wait for...

[mi]

Somebody hacking their communication protocol(s) to make the barrels:

• dance;
• align into patterns, such as those, that form words and slogans, when viewed from the air;
• block the traffic altogether ("Italian Job" anyone?).

That would be fun...

Shew us the way, Mother England!

[Anonymous Coward]

Tif true! Spelling and gramatical ufage among ye colonial peoplef haf varyed hardly a whit cince ye Revolution. Thay have neither invented any new wordf nor varyed ye spelling nor meaning of ye wordf they already knew.