IBM Uses Roomba Robots To Plot Data Center Heat

judgecorp writes "IBM is using robots based on iRobot Create, a customizable version of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, to measure temperature and humidity in data centers. The robot looks for cold zones (where cold air may be going to waste instead of being directed to the servers) and hotspots (where the air circulation may be breaking down. IBM is putting the robots to commercial use at partners — while EMC is at an early stage on a strikingly similar project."

Comments

Roomba proves it

[DickBreath]

Roomba proves that robots can revolutionize domestic cat transportation.

Now they just need to provide a way for the cat to steer the darned thing and provide a more comfortable surface for the cat to sit on.

Re:Roomba proves it

[Mystakaphoros]

Roomba proves that robots can revolutionize domestic cat transportation. Now they just need to provide a way for the cat to steer the darned thing and provide a more comfortable surface for the cat to sit on.

Allowing cats to steer robots is a sure fire way to doom us all.

Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[h4rr4r]

I wonder how big a data center has to be before this is cheaper than just putting in a lot of temperature probes.

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[spamchang]

But having said that, you only get the air temp on the floor. This does you no good w.r.t. 3D air flows where you could have bad heat traps above ground (hot air rises, yo).

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[h4rr4r]

You can hang probes into racks. I do this already.

I just can't imagine that the roomba cost is much cheaper than the probes and their monitoring device, until you have a lot of them.

Pulling lots of cable is easy, already going to be doing that in a datacenter. Monitoring is dead easy, these things are built for that and nagios/$MONITORING_SOFTWARE_YOU_LIKE can alert as needed.

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[PRMan]

But the Roomba's guarantee a wire-free floor and that all the tiles are in place... :)

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[camperdave]

Is a temp censor one who only blocks out offensive material for a short time?

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[tlhIngan]

But having said that, you only get the air temp on the floor. This does you no good w.r.t. 3D air flows where you could have bad heat traps above ground (hot air rises, yo).

How do you do it right now? I mean, if you only have one probe, it can only probe the location.

Oh right, you use multiple probes. Guess what? Roomba can have multiple probes as well - like putting them up on a pole and having and getting the temperature vs. height.

The only real difference is that Roomba can only get current temperature where it's at - everywhere else is historical temperature.

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[FatdogHaiku]

Is a temp censor one who only blocks out offensive material for a short time?

I was thinking you could just censor heat and thereby save a bundle in cooling costs...

Re:Temperature probes are pretty cheap

[aaarrrgggh]

You can get i2c digital temperature sensors which lets you put a whole mess on a single bus. But... if you can put 64 of them on an 8' pole and run it around on a Roomba, you can create a 3D temperature map. You can even get all crazy and have 3D grid of sensors on the Roomba and review the impact of air disruption as you move around!

I for one welcome our new robot....

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Ahhh, nevermind.. .anyone with a new robot meme? Bite my shiny metal.....

Re:I for one welcome our new robot....

[The Grim Reefer]

and then they started attacking humans. Soon, FloorNet had us on the run. That's when we built a time machine to send someone back to kill the inventor of the Roomba.

Well iRobot, the company that makes Roomba, does make most of its money from defense contracts.

Imagine harder

[oGMo]

Why can't you imagine this? One of these costs $130, off-the-shelf. They have eleven total, all around the world, which is $1430, off-the-shelf. Add in some more for the sensor setup etc ... maybe even double or triple it, if you're feeling generous. I imagine one guy can write a program that takes care of all of these. How much do your rack probes per data center cost? How much to install all of them? How much does the monitoring device cost?

Then, how long and how many people does it take to test them all regularly after they're installed? And how hard are they to install on an existing data center, vs dropping one of these on the floor, slapping some RFID stickers around, and walking away?

I imagine this is a trial run and IBM could probably come up with an even cheaper bulk solution if they need to. But it sure sounds like a lot less overall .. just the installation and maintenance probably makes it worth it, even if the price is more (which I doubt).