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Inching SkySweeper robot provides cheap way to inspect powerlines

skysweeper.jpg

If you look up at a power line in a few years and see something skittering along the wires, it (hopefully) won’t be a mutant crab monster, but a powerline inspection robot costing less than US$1,000. A prototype of such a robot, called SkySweeper, was presented this month at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering’s Research Expo. The robot was built with off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer.
via Gizmag

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