Robots to Crawl Under the City

Johan Louwers writes "Robots will crawl tubes in a short while to investigate power cables running in the tubes to make sure they are still undamaged or in need for a repair. The Robotic Cable Inspection System is developed by Alexander Mamishev, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. Making use of infrared thermal analysis and acoustic partial discharge analysis, the robot will be checking mile after mile of cable while crawling his way in the tubes."

Now we know

[snarkth]

How the Sentinels got their start.

  snarkth

Someone has to say it

[Dachannien]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic underlords.

Damn...

[Dunbal]

Now where are we humans going to hide when Skynet becomes active?

Identifiers?

[Grey_14]

I would hope they would make them easy to identify and track, Imagine stumbling upon some weird robotic beasty that washed out of a storm drain and thinking it's the beginning of the robot revolution or something, Maybe they could just write "NOT EVIL" in magic marker or something, that would make ME feel better.

Horror

[SinGunner]

This sounds like a bad horror-movie plot. Next they'll start coming up from the ground in some old people's home and killing everyone, and then the police get called in to investigate, but they just can't tell what the hell happened. Then more isolated incidents start to occur which leads the main character and his expendable co-stars into the dark abandoned subway tunnels to search for this menace from the underneath!

The final scene involves a huge explosion or EMP burst that destroys all the robots but also leaves everyone in the sewer in complete darkness. Cut, print, that's a wrap. Where's my money?

Re:Identifiers?

[prencher]

Just make the components in google colours.

Re:Identifiers?

[LiquidCoooled]

Add an "I'm feeling lucky" button to really top off its "none-evilness".

Finally!

[sharkey]

We desperately NEED something to keep the tubes clear. Sometimes it takes a whole WEEK for an Internet to get to me!

Robots in Tubes?

[TooFarGone]

If these robots can go into tubes, maybe when the internets are clogged they can help us out?

Re:Robots in Tubes?

[cbiltcliffe]

Well, of course! This is Senator Ted Stevens' solution to the quake damage in East Asia!

The submitter must have forgotten to include that bit......

Only the beginning

[SmlFreshwaterBuffalo]

Great, how long before they start using similar robots to check your prostate?

(Ha! You thought this was going to be another reference to The Matrix/Terminator, didn't you?)

Re:Identifiers?

[Kadin2048]

Maybe they could just write "NOT EVIL" in magic marker or something, that would make ME feel better.

How about "Don't Panic" in nice, friendly letters?

Re:Robots good at checking pipes

[dangitman]

Yeah, but can it fly?

Re:Horror

[plover]

Next they'll start coming up from the ground in some old people's home and killing everyone

Nah, they won't kill old people, they'll just eat their medicine for fuel. Besides, I've got my life insurance policy from Old Glory Insurance so I feel safe, even though the robots may strike at any time.

Old Glory Insurance. [google.com] For when the metal ones decide to come for you - and they will.

Re:TUBES!

[Shads]

For a moment there I thought we were talking the start of the matrix :P

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