Slashdot Mirror


U.S. Will Use Robots to Patrol Water Supply

bl8n8r writes "By the summer of 2005, the United States will have an underwater network of robots monitoring the nations fresh water supply. Realtime environmental details will be used to help safeguard the nations drinking water. The robots would take on the painstaking, time consuming, and sometimes dangerous, task of collecting water samples which is currently being done by carbon based lifeforms."

1 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is awesome by Paulrothrock · · Score: 5, Interesting
    As my dad likes to say: "Environmentalism doesn't mean shivering in the dark." Just by thinking about a better way to solve a problem, you can make things more efficient without sacrificing anything. New technology or old, it's all in how you use it.

    Case in point: He built a water preheater out of some foil-backed foam insulation, some pipe, black paint, and a 55 gallon drum. He built a box out of the insulation with the foil facing in, painted the drum black, and hooked it up between the water supply and the hot water heater. On sunny days it gets the water hot with free energy before sending it to the water heater. This reduces the amount of paid energy he had to use. Total material cost: $100. And it saved him $175 in the first year.

    --
    I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.