Posted on Wed, May. 12, 2004
Robotic water sensors could protect against terrorism
OTISCO LAKE, N.Y. (AP) - A network of underwater robots beaming up a near
real-time environmental profile of lakes, rivers and reservoirs could soon be
on the prowl helping safeguard the nation's drinking water from sabotage.
The robots would replace researchers who painstakingly collect water samples in
bottles and take them back to the laboratory for analysis, an expensive,
time-consuming and sometimes dangerous practice.
By summer 2005, Syracuse University researchers will have installed a dozen
robotic sensors to form the largest underwater monitoring system of its kind in
the country and one of the most extensive in the world, said principal
investigator Charles Driscoll, a professor of environmental systems engineering
at Syracuse.
The project will cover more than 25 miles of the Seneca River and five
connected lakes, including three municipal drinking water sources for more than
500,000 people in central New York: Otisco, Skaneateles and Owasco lakes.
``Not too far off, though, this technology will be able to serve as an early
warning system, a network of robotic sentinels, to protect our waterways from
terrorist attacks,'' said Steven Effler, executive director of the Upstate
Freshwater Institute, a partner in the project.
The institute also oversees a network of six robots in the Schoharie Reservoir
and Schoharie and Esopus creeks, which provide drinking water for New York
City.
Similar underwater environmental monitoring programs are under way in
Minnesota, Washington, Nevada and North Carolina, said Bruce Munson, an
associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, where the
technology was pioneered.
``This is promising technology,'' said Ben Grumbles, who heads the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's water office. ``The key to protecting our
water resources is real-time monitoring. These robots present an exciting
opportunity to accomplish that.''
The water-detection system is one of several projects underway by researchers
and companies to hone sensitive detection equipment for use in homeland
security. For example, researchers at Pennsylvania State University are working
on an inexpensive, disposable sensor for ricin, the highly poisonous protein
found in castor beans and thought to be a potential terrorism agent.
The underwater robots are known as a RUSS system -- Remote Underwater Sampling
Stations -- developed in the late 1990s as part of a National Science
Foundation educational project to give college and high school students an
opportunity to monitor lakes and rivers over the Internet. The first systems
were installed in 1998 in Ice Lake and Lake Independence in Minnesota.
Syracuse launched its first robotic monitor in 1999 in Onondaga Lake, a federal
Superfund site that is considered the nation's most polluted waterway.
Here's how RUSS works:
A mobile, underwater sensor package, tethered to a floating platform, contains
an onboard computer, solar panels and telemetry equipment for position
tracking. As the computer-controlled sensors move vertically through the water,
they collect data as frequently as every 10 minutes on temperature, oxygen,
turbidity, light and salt content.
This summer, Driscoll and his team will be testing a new generation of sensors
to detect phosphorous, iron, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and other substances.
The data are transmitted via cellular phone signals to the main computer at
Syracuse and eventually posted on the Web.
The information enables scientists to better understand the environmental
systems at work and assess whether the water is suitable for consumption,
aquatic life and recreation, Driscoll said.
One of the system's greatest benefits, he said, is its ability to track
pollution as it occurs, letting scientists manage it and make informed,
on-the-spot decisions.
``The New York project is extremely well designed and will give scientists a
deep understanding of how the different components of a lake interact,'' Munson
said.
Still, the technology is not quite ready as an early warning system. Currently,
the robots are removed each winter. Effler said scientists are working on a
monitoring system that will rest on the lake bed and can be used year-round.
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| User: "Werewolfy" |
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| Title: Re: Robotic water sensors could protect against terrorism |
13 May 2004 12:44:35 PM |
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(TonyZ2001) wrote in message news:<20040513053946.22456.00000468@mb-m29.aol.com>...
Posted on Wed, May. 12, 2004
Robotic water sensors could protect against terrorism
================================================================================
I think you should revert to the old ways. Use a 'water taster' to
discover if the water has been poisoned.
A brave man...well, you perhaps Tony... might volunteer his services
to this end?
You would save the Us a lot of valuable money and, after all, it would
only be replacing one robot with another.
Werewolfy
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| User: "Little Rascal" |
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| Title: Re: Robotic water sensors could protect against terrorism |
13 May 2004 03:39:16 PM |
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In article <85ebfda0.0405130944.5e138b56@posting.google.com>, Werewolfy
<RickyColeclough@aol.com> wrote:
tonyz2001@aol.com (TonyZ2001) wrote in message
news:<20040513053946.22456.00000468@mb-m29.aol.com>...
Posted on Wed, May. 12, 2004
Robotic water sensors could protect against terrorism
==============================================================================
==
I think you should revert to the old ways. Use a 'water taster' to
discover if the water has been poisoned.
A brave man...well, you perhaps Tony... might volunteer his services
to this end?
You would save the Us a lot of valuable money and, after all, it would
only be replacing one robot with another.
Werewolfy
Lol nice one!!
Yeah Tony you're such a patriot.. step forward
--
Bugger off!
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