NUSwan refers to environment-friendly swan-bots, a brainchild of researchers from the National University of Singapore. These automated robots have been positioned at local reservoirs for monitoring the water quality in urban areas.
The researchers of the National University of Singapore have explored the idea of robot swans for assessing water pollutants in the year 2010. Last year they started the deployment of test prototypes. They were having many small bird models in mind but later on settled with a swan. These robotic swans can measure pH, chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity levels in the water and transmit the data to the cloud. These robots swans are automated and power-efficient. They prove to be time and cost efficient and also look beautiful. These NUSwan are fitted with GPS navigation features so each bird in the robot-flock can monitor its accurate patch on the water and keep track of where it’s already taken samples. When they start discharging, these swans are programmed to paddle back to base for a recharge. They can be controlled by remote is also be designed to act autonomously wherever possible. They can endure accidents with kayakers and even small boats.
The NUSwan is representing a new paradigm of freshwater monitoring that can be deployed in urban freshwater bodies and coastal water. It is getting a lot of attention from other Asian countries, including China, which seems to be interested in distributing the same on its heavily polluted rivers.
