“JEROS uses its
propulsion speed to capture jellyfish into the grinding part on the bottom,
which then suctions the jellyfish toward the propeller to be exterminated.
JEROS may also be utilized for other purposes including marine patrols,
prevention of oil spills and waste removal in the sea”
Comments by KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology) on the JEROS (Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm Robots)
Project to exterminate Jellyfish around Nuclear Reactors
Swedish authorities
have an interesting problem; Blooms of Jellyfish keep swimming into their Open
Cooling System at the Oskarshamn Nuclear Plant. Their Nuclear Power Plant uses
Seawater to extract heat from the Nuclear Reactor to run heir Steam Turbines as
stated in [Sweden
faces its own shutdown: Cause? Jellyfish] and “Jellyfish
force nuclear plant shutdown in Sweden”, published Oct 02, 2013 11:00 AM ET
The Associated Press via Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
The Water
doesn’t come in direct contact with the Nuclear Rods but rather the Boiler
vessel, which acts as a heat Exchanger, extracting heat form the Reactor Vessel
and in the process turning the seawater into superheated Steam which is then
used to turn a Stream Turbine and thereby generate Electricity. These Jellyfish
clogged these Cooling Inlets and almost caused the Oskarshamn Nuclear Plant in
Sweden to shutdown due to overheating! A very serious problem that’s not going
away!
It seems the authorities in South Korea also
have a similar problem, for which the Urban Robotics Lab at KAIST (Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology) has a novel solution:
extermination by JEROS (Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm Robots) as
explained in “Humanity fights jellyfish
invasion with hunter-killer robots”, published October 3, 2013 2:42
PM PDT by Tim Hornyak, CNET News and “MEET
SOUTH KOREA’S AUTONOMOUS JELLYFISH-MURDERING ROBOTS”, published October 8,
2013 by Drew Prindle, DigitalTrends.
Now personally I’m worried as to what this’ll mean for humanity and mankind in general, especially as more and more of these robots are connected to us via the Internet as I’d argued in my Geezam blog article entitled “The Internet of Things – Our AI’s State of Connectedness”.
But on the
upside I kinda admire the ingenuity of the South Koreans or more specifically
the Urban Robotics Lab at KAIST
(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). These JEROS
are just Robots decked out with Cameras and GPS on the high seas riding on
floats with blender parts suspended in water. What makes them so interesting
and fearsome is that they’re semi-autonomous. As in Artificially
Intelligent…..and hence the reason why Dr. Who and the Daleks, his persistent
Nemesis, spring to mind!
Exterminate,
Exterminate!
Once put out to
sea, they do their work by themselves, actually coordinating together guided by
GPS to attack the Jellyfish at a phenomenal rate as well. According to tests
done by KAIST, three (3) JEROS can travel at a speed of 4
knots (4.6 mph) and can kill 1,984 pounds of jellyfish per hour.
#Awesome. You
need to see this video of them in action, albeit please be advised, it’s not
for the squeamish! Exterminate, Exterminate!
I’m not so fond
of Jellyfish, as some of them do sting, especially when you go swimming and
happen to encounter them. This is a novel, albeit Macabre solution to problem
that may have well ended up as bad as the Japanese, Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear
Power Plant (Dai-ichi simply means “number 1”) Nuclear Reactors accident that
occurred on Friday March 11th 2011 as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Japan Nuclear Reactor
Meltdown is the Asian Tiger Chernobyl”.
That too, was
the result of another Natural phenomenon, this time an Earthquake and Tsunami
and was also preventable! So it take a swarm of killer robots to get the job
done, I guess Sweden and other countries that have similar Nuclear Reactors
with Open Cooling Systems will soon have the JEROS on their Christmas Shopping
list come 2014 to “Exterminate, Exterminate” the Jellyfish, Dr. Who (2005 - ) Style!
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