I was going to save this for the weekend, but my entire university is closed today for a snow day, I thought it would be appropriate. Apparently central Illinois doesn’t get snow days often – I’ve been told they haven’t had a snow day since 1985. Take that, all you global warming advocates!
In Japan, they have an autonomous snowplow robot, called Yuki-taro, developed in the Niigata-area by researchers from several organizations. The robot is roughly 3 feet tall, and takes up a 3ft x 5ft ground space. Using GPS and video camera eye technology, the robots travel around parking lots to seek out snow, which they gobble up through the front, compress into 2ft x 1ft x 6in blocks, and then expels them out the back of the robot. These ice blocks can then be stored until the summer, when they can be used as an alternative method of refrigeration or cooling.
The robot won a Good Design Award in 2006, and the makers hope to make it commercially available in the next five years for less than 1 million yen (roughly $8,300 USD). Of course, if they made a few design changes as shown in the photoshopped picture below, I’m sure it would sell like hotcakes!
