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A Robotic Cable Inspection System

Posted by Zonk on from the amazing-voyage-only-without-guts dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a short article, Popular Science reports that researchers at the University of Washington have built a robotic cable inspection system. This system should help utility companies to maintain their networks of subterranean cables. The robot, dubbed Cruiser, is about 4-feet-long and is designed like a snake. When it detects an anomaly on an underground cable, it sends a message to a human operator via Wi-Fi. The first field tests took place in New Orleans in December 2006. But a commercial version should not be available before 2012."

5 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by Cervantes · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmmm, 4 feet long, designed like a snake...

    bring on the pr0n jokes...

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  2. had to be done by tedivm · · Score: 2, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords.

    1. Re:had to be done by Known+Nutter · · Score: 4, Funny

      wouldn't they be Underlords?

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      Beware of the Leopard.
  3. Samuel L. Jackson appointed DIRNSA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    > The robot, dubbed Cruiser, is about 4-feet-long and is designed like a snake. When it detects an anomaly on an underground cable, it sends a message to a human operator via Wi-Fi.

    "That's IT! I have had it with these muthafuckin' splices in these muthafuckin' fiba-optic cables!"

  4. Automated post: FA void of anything new or useful by viking80 · · Score: 4, Funny

    WiFi, or any other radio does not work in salt water.

    This is an automated comment generated by a grease monkey script. If you agree that the Featured Article posted by a blog whore, or if you do not want to read any future articles with no useful or new content, you can gray out all Roland Piquepaille articles with this script:

    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/5735/ [userscripts.org]

    Enjoy!

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