| on 25-08-2007 21:49 |
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 IN a huge shed on a block of dirt west
of Brisbane, a handful of boys are tinkering with toys that will change
the way many industries do business.
They're CSIRO robot builders based at the Queensland Centre for
Advanced Technologies at Pullenvale and their toys include a
mini-helicopter and an ocean explorer.
The latter, dubbed the Starbug by its designers, is an autonomous
underwater vehicle and has been designed to scoot about waterways
taking photographs of the underwater landscape.
Matthew Dunbabin, who led the team that developed the Starbug, said
it was designed to do vision-based surveys of areas such as the Great
Barrier Reef.
"The Reef is more than 2000km long and there aren't enough marine
scientists to go out and survey the whole thing," Dr Dunbabin said.
"So if you can give them tools that enable them to gather 10 times
more data than they can at the moment, they can actually start to
consider things on the scale of the Reef itself instead of just trying
to look at small parts."
The Starbug is close to being manufactured on a commercial scale and
it is expected that dozens will be built in the next two years.
Next to the indoor swimming pool used to test run the Starbug, four
cables are taut with the weight of a robot that has a passing
resemblance to a small helicopter.
Pilot-less airborne inspection robots are not a new concept but the
CSIRO team, headed by Torsten Merz, is developing the system that will
allow the helicopter to "see" its way around obstacles and take
photographs for analysis.
Dr Merz said it could be used to inspect power lines, cooling towers and bridges and to assess damage after natural disasters.
The helicopter had a rotor diameter of about 2m and would be able to
go places more cheaply and extensively than full-size helicopters, he
said.
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