This Week in TechnoloGeez: Saving the Planet
By Mark Devlin
November 3, 2009
Finding (Robotic) Nemo
We’ve got robots in air and on land. How about in sea?
An engineer and ecologist at Michigan State University have joined forces to develop robotic fish. Assistant professor of zoology Elena Lichtman recently won funding from the NSF to integrate her research with that of Xiaobo Tan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, says that fish are very efficient in getting around in water.
Why in the world would we need robotic fish? Well, according to this article at Science Daily...
"The robotic fish will be providing a consistent level of data that hasn't been possible before," Litchman explained. "With these patrolling fish we will be able to obtain information at an unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution. Such data are essential for researchers to have a more complete picture of what is happening under the surface as climate change and other outside forces disrupt the freshwater ecosystems. It will bring environmental monitoring to a whole new level."
A few robofish here and there? Not really. We’re talking ‘schools of them operating autonomously for months.’ They’ll be all sensored up, too, able to record such data as temperature, oxygen, pollutants, and harmful algae. Tan’s robofish fins are of electro-active polymers that bend and twist with applied voltage—a technology that can also be reversed and used for feelers to signal maneuvering circuits. That’s just the beginning. Schools of these things will also incorporate GPS tech and intertial measurement units for precise navigation. Tan is also designing related electronics for navigation and communication.
A 9-inch-long prototype is now swimming in Tan’s lab, but needs further development to swim against currents.
While the article doesn’t mention this, I’d imagine there are also Homeland Security apps for these guys, monitoring reservoirs and such. Industrial apps, anyone?
More interesting links at the Science Daily article.
“Houston, We Have a Problem...”
...could have a completely different twist now that the European Science Agency has launched a pair of climate change monitoring satellites, according to this article at ITPro.
One is the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite, weighing 685 kg, that was launched just a couple of days ago from northern Russia. The equipment’s 69 sensors on three arms accomplish from orbit what current devices do on land and sea—but now on a global scale. While the term climate change is typically associated with global warming—which the system monitors—it also provides data that will be of great help to meteorologists.
The SMOS carried with it a smaller, 135 kg satellite, called the Proba 2, which ‘carries fibre sensors, a camera with a wide angle view of 120 degrees, a dual frequency GPS space receiver, a cold gas generator, tools to study the sun, and something calls a ‘xenon-fed resistojet thruster’.”
The SMOS is orbiting at 760 km, with Proba 2 a little closer at 725 km.
“We are extremely pleased with this double ‘lucky strike’ that will provide Europe with new tools to better understand our planet and climate change, as well as new technology breakthroughs that will enhance the competitiveness of European industry on the world-wide market, thus contributing to the global economy,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General, in a statement.
Provide Europe with? Huh. Wanna share some of that data, guys and gals? Oh, that’s right. We don’t care. But maybe you can tell us where our robotic fish have gone.
SheThinks My Tractor’s Sexy
Kenny Chesney probably didn’t have small town in New South Wales, Australia, in mind when he wrote that modern-day classic. There’a battle goin’ on in that small town, too. According to this article from down under...
The battle's unlikely heroes are Mr Linklater and his 400-horsepower, oxygen-sucking, diesel-guzzling, carbon-spewing tractor.
But Mr Linklater is literally ploughing ahead, injecting his tractor's fossil fuel exhaust fumes directly into the ground, where they enhance the biochemical interaction between plants and soil microbes. And it seems his home-grown version of carbon sequestration, introduced in 2007, is getting results, with this year's crop, aided by better rainfall, his best since 2001.
Linkater spent 20 grand to cool his tractor’s diesel fumes to 30 deg, then expels them into the ground. The carbon in them thar fumes acts as fertilizer. Going with chemical fertilizers instead would have cost $500,000.
In Australia...
The Federal Opposition has proposed amendments permanently removing agriculture's methane emissions from an emissions trading scheme while allowing farmers to make money through carbon credits earned from replanting trees and storing carbon in the soil.
Mr. Linkater says we’ll all have to pay with carbon taxes at some point. Keen observation.
Have an industrial diesel generator? Take your diesel fumes and stick ‘em...in the ground.
Anyone from the EPA care to comment?
Have a great week—seeya Thursday...