Las Vegas Review-Journal

Irrigation system upkeep brigade gets decidedly nonhuman helpers

- The Associated Press

PHOENIX — The Salt River Project is turning to robots and drones to maintain miles of irrigation canals linked by miles of ditches and pipes.

The new method will make the operation work a lot more efficientl­y, as opposed to using resources to dispatch people, trucks and equipment to a remote location, said Mike Ploughe, a senior scientist for the Salt River Project water quality and waste management services.

Beyond handling dirt and debris, the project uses herbicides to reduce algae and sago pondweed in its 131 miles of open irrigation canals, which are connected by more than 1,000 miles of lateral ditches and pipes. But those lateral pipes, often choked with invasive freshwater mussels, pose a tougher challenge, KJZZ-FM said.

Assistant professor Wenlong Zhang and his team from Arizona State University are working on a quadcopter that will fly itself to assigned locations, observe and await orders.

The robots require solution of some of the most intricate problems in robotics for a variety of environs and missions

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