Urban Robotics Lab at KAIST develops the JEROS to Exterminate, Exterminate Jellyfish

“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 11^th 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!