Pipe Inspection Robot

Posted on Jun 23, 08 07:32 PM PDT

There are a thousand and one reasons why pipes get clogged up, and I'm pretty sure Mario & Luigi will be able to rattle off all of them with ease. Strange how they make their way through pipes without getting those white gloves of theirs dirty - perhaps they had the help of an intelligent pipe inspection robot? This robot is smart enough to move in pipes of varying diameters (minimum of 20cm), and it is smart enough to know when a turn is coming right up ahead courtesy of a pre-loaded path description that mentions the kinds of tasks it can carry out in various situations. According to the inventors, "when the robot enters a vertical pipe, it lifts its head in the pipe and meets the pipe wall. It can then either move sideways with its abdomen against the pipe and twist itself upwards or it can topple backwards, attach itself to the pipe wall, in the same way as we would put our feet against a shaft wall to hold on, and then roll upwards." Now if that ain't smart, I don't know what it is. Good luck cleaning it up after though.

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