Robot swans developed by PUB, NUS and the Tropical Marine Science Institute that help real-time quality water monitoring. (Photo: Jack Board)
SINGAPORE: Five robotic swans will be used at various reservoirs in Singapore to monitor raw water quality, announced national water agency PUB on Monday (Jan 15).
The robots, called the Smart Water Assessment Network (SWAN), use water monitoring technology to collect data in real time. They are designed to resemble real swans so as to blend in with the natural surroundings.
Jointly developed by PUB, the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Environmental Research Institute and the Tropical Marine Science Institute, SWAN completed tests in 2016 to evaluate its capabilities in sampling and navigation as well as power usage.
It is one of the technological solutions PUB is adopting to better understand reservoir conditions and improve raw water quality.
The robotic swans will be deployed at Marina, Punggol, Serangoon, Pandan and Kranji reservoir. PUB said more data needs be collected from newer reservoirs Marina, Punggol and Serangoon, so as to better understand the reservoir conditions.
As for Kranji and Pandan, these tend to see greater growth of algae during dry weather, so there is a need to monitor water quality more closely, it said.
More at Channel News Asia
RISE OF THE MACHINES.
LOL I can just imagine some nut wading into the waters to steal one of these robot swans and offloading it on the black market for a princely sum.