We have all watched in the last five year the amount of time and effort it takes to clean up after a massive Hurricane. The flying debris can be picked up fast and removed, but the flooding, well that is a whole other story indeed. Flooding damage is always substantial both from rain and storm surges. But what if we took a new approach to the clean up? What if we called in DARPA and contracted with US Robotics to build giant SUV size RoboVacuums? We would put hydro-twisters underneath and equipment similar to street sweepers and let them go cleaning things up? Recently an online think tank took up this issue and considered some of the possibilities as Swift from Las Vegas stated; It would certainly free up more humans for rescue efforts and keep them from being exposed to diseases. They could have a vacuuming and a cutting mode, as sometimes they would need to use both. Sure this could be done and the robotic vacuums could operate along roads clearing trees and debris and work of GPS waypoints autonomously or some could be telerobotically operated via a temporary blimp communication station in the sky for a relay? Or use a broadband Internet connection via satellite with a 6-axis floating antenna on the giant RoboVac. (BTW all this technology exists now to make these a reality). Consider all this in 2006. |
