Smokey Bear Could Be Replaced By Smokey Blade-Wielding Robot

treehugger.com:

Okay, wow. Here's an idea for you--a giant, saw blade-wielding robot that can be unleashed to fight forest fires. See, it can be deployed to rapidly clear cut a section of forest to contain a blaze with those massive buzz saws, sparing pristine acres and saving lives. Just goes to show what a generation of designers reared on a steady diet of Transformers, Voltron, and I guess, Captain Planet can do when they put their mind to it.

Read the whole story: treehugger.com

Comments

[crayola 08]

yeah but when will we have the technology to create something like that? i luv science fiction but not when people make it out to be achievable in present time.

[MajorKong]

You had me at "Giant blade-wielding robot"..........

[Joethepauper]

So, they can invent a tree-clearing robot, but they still can't catch Bin Laden?! Send the robot after him! They would s#it their pants is they saw that coming! All that ingenuity and technology to do a job that is already being done. How about a robot that can go out to the giant Pacific garbage patch and clean up the twice the size of Texas pile of plastic floating out there. How about a car that gets 100 mpg? How about a space shuttle that isn't damaged by foam every time it's launched? What we need the most is a Congress-clearing robot designed to haul-off Congressmen and Senators who say they want GITMO closed, but then vote down the funding.

[WilliePilgrim]

This is really a marvelouos idea and one that during my years fighting fires in the western forests, would sometimes occupy my own mind. It's impressive what a few hand crews of twenty and some planes filled with retardant can do when controlling fire, but nothing makes one feel smaller than when even a gentle uphill draft turns a lazy and smouldering burn into a tornado of buring debris, ripping hard-hats off one's head and obliterating both vision and breathing ability.
The article in Treehugger is a good one worth visiting, and does some decent exposure on some of the other talents a machine like this could have for a modern resource manager...imagine no more roads for heavy equipment, truly selective cutting and culling, clearing of exotics, and protection of particularly valuable resources within the scope of the operation. And I have to admit, I would love to be in the drivers seat for one of these things so I could admire the forests as only a 20 foot tall sasquatch could.

[AlexFTW]

Can it take care of urban blights too? Like say, Los Angeles?

[AlexFTW]

I want one for Christmas!

[GallopingCat]

Great. Say hello to our new masters.

[JScott]

Should be adapted to pick tree fruit and other ag products as well. Plus how well will it work on steep mountain slopes?

I remember seeing the end of a news clip about a robot designed to trim mexican fan palms so a worker doesnt have to climb to the top and saw the dead fronds off. But haven't seen it on youtube or similar.

[BeefyT]

Riiiiight.
Cut down twees to save twees?
Then what will we all hug?

[discourse jockey]

Either dead trees or fake trees, like on Christmas.

[gcallaghan]

In its spare time can this harvester/stripper do lap dances, too?

[pokemon]

Have these engineers never seen Terminator?

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

That tree harvester/stri.pper is pretty awesome. I'll have to show it to my kids sometime.

[JnrNorman]

What we need are russian made water tankers for aircraft.
they allow more water to held while still handling better than current tanks.
They allow the water to be spread better too.

[jeffmorgan]

Fern Gully.

[Sumocat]

Only you can prevent forest fires, but it takes a bad-ass giant robot to contain them. I approve (at least until they gain sentience and try to clear-cut us).

[pokemon]

"I'll be back"