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Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water 292

Posted by simoniker from the supersoaker-with-extra-evisceration dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Robot pummels roads with water', the Augusta Chronicle says that a hydrodemolition robot is going to restore seven bridges in Georgia. "It's a robot that destroys everything in its path with a crushing stream of water 15 times more powerful than a jackhammer. The robot looks like a street cleaner machine on steroids and is expected to begin use August 1 to resurface seven bridges on Gordon Highway from Walton Way to the bridge at the South Carolina state line." This kind of robot needs only two workers to operate it, instead of 15 workers for a jackhammer, is less noisy and more gentle for the foundations. You'll find more details in this summary."
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Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water More

Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water

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  • Unions (Score:5, Funny)

    by whig ( 6869 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:17PM (#6217462) Homepage Journal
    Why do I think labor groups will be unhappy about this?

    • Re:Unions (Score:5, Funny)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:19PM (#6217488) Homepage Journal
      "Why do I think labor groups will be unhappy about this?"

      Because their beer gut that was formerly helpful in keeping the Jackhammer under control now gets in the way of the steering wheel?

    • Re:Unions (Score:4, Funny)

      by Verteiron ( 224042 ) * on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:23PM (#6217548) Homepage
      Nah, they can just move the extras to the $30/hour "Holding the 'Slow/Stop' sign" position.

    • Re:Unions (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GMontag ( 42283 )
      Oh, perhaps because they might get more work done by using 8 crews and the State hiring another guy to make it a full 16?

      They might have to work nights if 8 crews only have 2 machines?

      They might get to work many more years in good health, including good hearing?

      They are still experiencing trauma from the demise of the buggy whip, gas light and candle industries?

      Just guesses of course :-)

      BTW, I think GA is a "right to work State", so Unions have less power to keep work in the dark ages.

    • Re:Unions (Score:5, Funny)

      by maeka ( 518272 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:29PM (#6217633) Journal
      (Emphasis mine)
      The machine also produces less noise and dust than a jackhammer, is more powerful than a jackhammer and requires only about two people to supervise it
      ([instead of 15 workers for a jackhammer.]

      15 workers for a jackhammer? How do they do that?
      1 guy on the hammer,
      1 guy on the compressor,
      2 guys flagging traffic,
      1 guarding the water cooler,
      1 observer from the Local,
      1 QC inspector,
      1 caterer,
      1 Foley Grip,
      1 Best Boy,
      1 Personal Assistant to Mr. Hammer Operator,
      1 Stunt Double,
      1 Foreman,
      1 Orange cone supervisor,
      and that's only 14!

      • Re:Unions (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:52PM (#6217866)
        " 15 workers for a jackhammer? How do they do that?"

        Don't you pay attention? Whenever you have contstruction work going on, you always need 3 or 4 guys on a break. If you don't have 15 workers, you can't keep that many people on the break. It's called rotation!

        What I want to know is where the other 11 guys are hiding whenever those 4 guys are on a break.

        • Re:Unions (Score:5, Funny)

          by RajivSLK ( 398494 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @10:24PM (#6219685)
          You think its bad in the usa.

          When I was in Japan I saw 5 guys "operating" a wheel-barrow in a train station.

          1 person to direct peadestrians out of the way.
          1 person to direct the wheel-barrow.
          1 person to actually push the wheel-barrow.
          1 person to walk 10 feet behind the wheel-barrow.
          and 1 person to stand at a distance of 15 feet and supervise.

          To top if off the wheel-barrow was empty.

    • OSHA (Score:3, Informative)

      by stoolpigeon ( 454276 )
      All those guys standing around at road construction sites have a lot to do with OSHA and very little to do with unions.

      .
      • It only has to do with "unions" when they are in northern New Jersey or New York and are standing around in suits.

        =)

  • 15 workers for a jackhammer?!? (Score:5, Funny)

    by tigersaw ( 665217 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:18PM (#6217477)
    Man, construction unions are unstoppable.

  • Send it to SCO (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:19PM (#6217494)
    Can someone direct one of these to SCO Headquarters?

    • Re:Send it to SCO (Score:2, Funny)

      by pmz ( 462998 )
      Shhhh... (whispers) The reason IBM seemed to stall so long in replying to SCO is that these things are damn slow. Just wait one more week...
  • I'd like to attach this machine to my CPU. Wouldn't have any overheating problems then!

  • "Hey kids!" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Atario ( 673917 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:20PM (#6217501) Homepage

    "How about a splash of water on this hot summer day?"

    "YayyyyAAIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

  • recycle water? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ender_wiggins ( 81600 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:21PM (#6217512) Journal
    Does it recycle the water? seems like alot of water to be wasting. But since its the City or State that would be using, its ok to waste water. Altho there will still be 15 people standing around to "supervise" the two people required to run this machine.

  • I am your robot God (Score:5, Funny)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:22PM (#6217528) Homepage
    Mrs. Everitt said the hydrodemolition robot helps the DOT because it removes faulty concrete but leaves good concrete behind.

    So it's a robot that plays God then? I cast you, bad concrete, into the abys from where you shall never return!

    Just as long as it doesn't start running wild and judging humans, or there might be a significant oversupply of liquified lawyers.

  • Good for water-rich areas, not for deserts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mr. McGibby ( 41471 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:22PM (#6217531) Homepage Journal
    Folks who've never lived in a desert don't seem to understand how valuable water is in some parts of the country. While the article mentions that they water is reclaimed later by workers, in someplace like Utah or Arizona, I'm sure thousands of gallons are lost through evaporation before that can happen.

    • Good point (Score:3, Insightful)

      by zapp ( 201236 )
      Very good point. Here in Colorado we've been in mild-to-severe drought for several years, but this spring/summer seems to be returning to normal.

      There is nothing like driving by an empty lake bed, or not seeing a blue sky for 2 months through all the smoke of forrest fires, that makes you truly appriciate water.

      On the subject, in the dorms there were always people who would go turn on the shower and then go take a 10 minute crap while the water was running... or leave the sink full blast while brushing th

      • Re:Good point (Score:4, Interesting)

        by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:52PM (#6217862) Journal
        On the subject, in the dorms there were always people who would go turn on the shower and then go take a 10 minute crap while the water was running... or leave the sink full blast while brushing their teeth.

        Ahhh, you could always tell who the Easterners were. "Defrost the turkey? Yah, just leave it in the sink with the water running..."

        Of course, there are still a lot of people out West who still don't get it. Watering lawns with what amounts to drinking water? And they wonder why their water bills are so high...

    • Re:Good for water-rich areas, not for deserts (Score:5, Funny)

      by demonbug ( 309515 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:34PM (#6217687) Journal
      Folks who've never lived in a desert don't seem to understand how valuable water is in some parts of the country.


      Yeah. In Las Vegas, for example, you aren't allowed to recreate more than one ocean per casino. Any more would just be wasteful.

    • I just took a cross-country U.S. road trip, and the lack of water out west was one of the most noticeable things we encountered. Many campsites didn't have running water at all -- flush toilets were a luxury. It's a true challenge to stay clean, knowing that you can't take a shower. :^)

      (For the overly curious, we did have a few stops at normal places where we were able to do laundry and take showers. Life wasn't bad at all on the road... A great trip indeed. Pictures are here [mac.com] for anyone who is interes
    • Comments about "why are we living in deserts anyway?" aside, it should be fairly easy to adapt this sort of technology to use in a "Low water waste" environment. Adding a vacuum system to sop up the water and concrete slury and centerfuge out the concrete bits would add cost, but should be a fairly simple fix. The water would be back in the tank before it could evaporate. The filtered water could be fed back to the machine on site, cutting the water usage substantially.

      Not saying it WILL happen, but it'
    • Folks who've never lived in a desert don't seem to understand how valuable water is in some parts of the country.
      What do you think sandblasting was invented for???
  • I know that the stream of water isn't going to be vibrating the road as a jackhammer would, but wouldn't 4 times as much power causes fractures of another sort? What if it is causing problems yet unseen?
    • Although I can't check exactly what it says in the article (since they both seem to be /.ed already), i'm guessing that the new machine actually applies a much higher pressure than a jackhammer, not necessarily using more force. The water stream probably applies its force over a very small area, even smaller than a jackhammer does. While this would create a very high pressure (high stress) when it first impacts the concrete (or whatever material it is being used on), it is probably not actually all that m
    • It seems to me that it might work in more of a "hyper erosion" kinda thing, like how the ocean will gradually wear anything away, without being rough. This puppy just speeds up the process.

  • How many workers? (Score:2, Informative)

    by teeters ( 598722 )
    "Requires only about two workers to supervise it instead of 15 jackhammer workers." - Source: Georgia Department of Transportation.

    • Re:How many workers? (Score:5, Funny)

      by mcpkaaos ( 449561 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:37PM (#6217717)
      When I was 17 I worked construction back up in the NW. In union terms, 'about two' translates roughly, in human terms, to 15 laborers, 4 foremen, 7 union representatives, and 3 strippers (to be brought on site for birthdays, mondays, tuesdays, etc.)

      To give you context, compare that to the software world, where 'about two' translates to just you, 4 weeks out of the 20 week projection, a pissed off laptop, and a boss that lives and dies by metrics.

      --
      mcp.kaaos

  • PSI, water source? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phorm ( 591458 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:23PM (#6217557) Journal
    I remember way back when I heard of something very similar, except it was a type of "saw" where extreme water pressure was used to cut wood (and possibly other objects) nicely in half. Apparently it can be quite a nice cut, without the friction-burn of metal blades.

    However, that is in an environment where the water can be recycled to a good extent as the machine runs... where does this machine get water from, and how many PSI is it dishing out? I'd assume that it requires close proximity to a good source of water, either a fire hydrant or (preferably), a lake/river/etc - as it probably shoots out a lot of water in order to achieve the correct pressure.

    I was going to re-read the article and double-check, but the blink tag at the end of the linked tech review just about blinded me.

  • High-pressure water (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Renraku ( 518261 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:24PM (#6217560) Homepage
    I saw a report a few years ago about the advantages of using a high-pressure water 'gun' for cutting metal. Some of the advantages was that the cooling was already taken care of, the material was recyclable with a filter, and the edges were already smoothed.

    • Re:High-pressure water (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SpeedBump0619 ( 324581 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:06PM (#6217977)
      You heard right. For anyone who hasn't heard of this there are several kinds, basically broken up by the maximum pressure. When I was involved with building automation systems this was one of the coolest things to play with (though they aren't toys).

      Add a little pulverized rock into a 0.012 inch stream of water at 60,000 psi and you can cut through *anything*. Biggest thing I ever saw was a 17 inch thick slab of titanium plating. The edges end up smooth, cool (or at most warm to the touch) and, if you are cutting something really expensive (or toxic) you can reclaim 99.99% of the material you eroded away.

      Waterjet is *the* coolest cutting technology in the world :) For info try:
      Flow [flowcorp.com]
      Jet Edge [jetedge.com]

      • Re:High-pressure water (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Hungus ( 585181 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:32PM (#6218737) Journal
        I dont know what you were looking at but I was a waterjet engineer a decade ago and first off to cut something like Ti you cant use water .. instead you use cerium oxide which is sucked into the water stream stream. So now you are using the water to accellerate the cerium oxide rather than teh water itself to cut. Also when you add artifacts you cant maintain a clean stream for 17 inches, heck with out artifacts a 30cm stream is amazing (water at 30-75k psi has to be very clean or you will destroy the nozzels almost instantly) its because of the problems with laminar flow. When the water hits the diaphram of teh jewel its pressure is so high that it acts like a laser in that only the water moving perpendicular to the jewel surface can make it out so all the water is moving in exactly the same direction, this is called laminar flow and the idea was developed by Dr Bob Higgans decades ago (he was a steam engineer originally to give you and idea of how old he is). Long story but Flow is evil they did some nasty dirty things to Bob and he formed his own co Technicut (whome I worked for). Anyway back to laminar flow, you see teh edges of teh stream after leaving the nozzel will cause air turbulance and start to tumble disrupting the stream. Eventually turbulance invades the entire stream and it looses most of its cutting ability. Now concrete? well thats easy to cut with straight water because quite honestly it is pretty soft. Of and you cant inject cerium oxide in a number 1 jewel ( .01 inches) you use at least a number 8 and preferably a number 10. Actually i guess you would ne mentioning a number 2 jewel which would be .02 but since the diameter of the stream is only 60% of the diameter of the jewel that would make it .012 still not enough to transport the cerium oxide.

        • Why the hell would you inject cerium oxide above the orifice when you can just entrain your favorite variety of abrasives into the beam below the jewel?

  • Coming soon to your dental office... (Score:5, Funny)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:25PM (#6217578) Journal
    Road-tested hydro-cleaning power from Georgia is coming straight from the street to your dentist's office! Call 1-800-OWW-SHIT for details!
  • What do we do with the poeple who are replced with automation?
    The normal response is there will be 15 people working for the company that makes the automated product, but thats not true.

    If I created a device that flips burgers, and cost less then maintaining a staff, people will buy it, and it will replaces millions of workes, far more then it would take to build the things.
    I'm not saying we shouldn't automate, I'm just asking what do we do as our jobs per person keeps declining?

    • Eat em (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      McDonalds introduces Soylent McTeens 2 for $3. Limited time offer, while supplies last.

    • Re:this bring up something interesting (Score:5, Insightful)

      by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:50PM (#6217841) Journal
      If I created a device that flips burgers, and cost less then maintaining a staff, people will buy it, and it will replaces millions of workes, far more then it would take to build the things.
      I'm not saying we shouldn't automate, I'm just asking what do we do as our jobs per person keeps declining?

      Yes, I remember how gramps lost his job making buggy whips when, 100 years ago today, Ford Motor Company incorporated.

      Fortunately, by 1904 he was able to get a job writing C.

      What, you say C wasn't invented until the 1970s?

      Oh, yeah, he got a job running an MRI.

      Oh, wait, I mean, in a genetics lab.

      No, that's not right....

      Getting rid of laborious, boring, physically punishing jobs that put people in early graves -- look up the etymology of "top-notch" for a real horror, and be glad we've forgotten how that phrase came to be --, and which can be done better, cheap, and faster by machine, is one of the great triumphs, along with medicine and leisure time, of technology.
      • again, I am not deriding technology.

        But we live in a society that revolves around money, what happens when everything becomes automated?

        If I replace a million people with me neat new device, what do those people do to live?

        Thus US is becoming a service society, but what hapens when the service is automated?

        Do we tax the automation companies, and give that money back to the people? do we need to become totally socialist? Not the socialism is bad, in and of itself, but it will get abused?
        • If I replace a million people with me neat new device, what do those people do to live?

          How 'bout if we cut the number of hours the remaining laborers are allowed to work? c.f. the 30/35 hr work week movements in Europe. That has the added benefit of more leasure time, which means more opportunity for spending money at bars, amusement parts, theatres, what-have-you.

          That has been one proposed measure.

        • Take a basic class in macroeconomics -- this will explain it to you clearly.

          Your argument has been going on for centuries. One common incarnation of it was "Malthusian" economics -- in the 1700s Robert Malthus predicted that we would all run out of food if the population kept growing and people would die by the masses from starvation. He never accounted for the fact that we can make more food with more technology.

          How does it work, then? In a nutshell, seamstress gets replaced by a machine, machine puts
      • Can you give me a link about the origin of "top-notch"? I've been googling around and all I can find is that maybe it's related to the winner of a game where you move pegs up a board, which was probably pretty boring but not exactly horrifying. :-)

        • Re:this bring up something interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

          by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:31PM (#6218725) Journal
          Can you give me a link about the origin of "top-notch"?

          Yeah, I did some serious googling for it too, and couldn't find it.

          As I recall, the "top-notcher" was one of two guys on either end of a long, two handled saw. He stood at the top of a pit, and the other fellow stood in the pit, to facilitate cutting logs. Working together, they'd saw the logs.

          Of course the guy down in the pit -- the top-notcher's opposite numbre -- had all the sawdust floating down on him, and inevitably he inhaled it. Over the course of about 10 years, he'd inhale enough sawdust to cause lung disease and premature death, disease and death the top-knotcher, by virtue of his position (literally, his position) avoided.
    • I'm not saying we shouldn't automate, I'm just asking what do we do as our jobs per person keeps declining?

      Well, what we should do is go to four-day work weeks and triple the minimum hourly wage. Unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen because that won't help The Man keep up with the Joneses.

      At some point, the unemployed will be the majority and they'll get together and start killing a lot of rich people. (Wait a minute, that's already happening...) Eventually the economy will collapse completely, som

  • You'd think they would have come up with a better way to break up asphalt than hitting it really hard by now. I mean, look at all the advances in advertising, military technology, and other things that are bad for the general public, and how little improvement there has been in fixing potential safety hazards.

  • "Restore Bridge" starts with trashing the old one (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lildogie ( 54998 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:27PM (#6217609)
    Last decade, in Washington State, hydrodemolition was used to "resurface" the Eastbound lanes of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, a couple of miles from the Western end of Interstate 90.

    Due to a chain of snafus, the "floating" bridge sunk one Thanksgiving day. Very nearly sunk the brand new Westbound floating bridge right next to it. (Part of the root cause was the storage of hydrodemolition wastewater in the flotation cells of the bridge.)

    Some years later, the records of liability were sealed in a court settlement between the state and the contractor.

  • The machine also produces less noise and dust than a jackhammer, is more powerful than a jackhammer and requires only about two people to supervise it.

    They forgot to mention the foreman to supervise the two guys supervising the robot, as well as the three people needed to hold the "SLOW" signs up for the oncoming traffic.

  • ...15 workers for a jackhammer...

    One to hold it and the other 14 to...

  • It's terrible! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Perdition ( 208487 )
    Has anyone even asked the Robot if he wants to do this act of destruction? How long will we be the faceless exploiters of our mechanical brothers? My heavens, forced to spray water from its orifices until the very ground below it dissolves!

    You! Get your filthy hands off my Aibo!
  • Google Search on high pressure water cutting [google.com]

    A simple search and you will see many different machines that use high pressure water to do their deed. Many years ago I remember watching Beyond2000 discuss a tool used to cut wood - each cut was smooth and precise.
  • OK, so its off topic. But I always like to talk about my fav robot that envolves water -- the mighty... Metromelt [trecan.com] It melts snow. Since it makes water maybe it can be hooked up to one of these water jackhammers.

  • Wow, I am enlightened (Score:4, Funny)

    by shazbotus ( 623281 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:54PM (#6217888)
    I was astounded by the fact that the newspaper's picture has details about the robot. The picture describes the robot as having a water PUMP that brings water to the robot. It's ingenious. Finally, a method by which we can transfer water. I mean I would have thought that maybe a Cadre of Trained Monkeys would have brought water little by little to the robot, but NO, a pump has now replaced their job. Its pure genius. Finally, a newspaper that publishes that facts that we want to know about and NEED to know about. I'm subscribing to this one!

  • Concrete Zamboni (Score:5, Interesting)

    by supertbone ( 624441 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:04PM (#6217961)
    If they could figure out a way to use the old concrete with the waste water to immediatly make new concrete it would be like a Zamboni for the highway.

  • Ah, the memories... (Score:3, Funny)

    by morganjharvey ( 638479 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:05PM (#6217966)
    This story reminded me of how when I was a kid (about 6 - 14 or so) I would take the garden hose and one of those gun-shaped attachments to my mom's garden and explore the excavatory power of water.

    At one point I had a very large system of trenches about a half foot deep dug through the flowers that went on for quite a distance.

    Needless to say, the local authorities (mom) weren't thrilled with this "science." They all said I was mad. They called me crazy. er...

  • gain robots, lose jobs? for skilled labor too? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:07PM (#6217987) Journal
    I think one day being employed is gonna feel like a scramble to stay ahead of some impending hyper-mechanization boom. yeah, it's been happening for at least a hundred or so years with basic, non-skilled labor, but what about highly skilled labor? what's going to happen with a robot can take orders from management to design applications faster and better than a human?

  • Slashdotted version of article is inaccurate (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Whoever posted the article seems to have misinterpreted what the article said. The article says:

    "One hydrodemolition robot does the work of 15 jackhammers." "Requires only about two workers to supervise it instead of 15 jackhammer workers."

    Specifically, since the robot can do the work of 15 jackhammers, you don't need those 15 jackhammer workers operating the 15 jackhammers (i.e., one worker per jackhammer), and can instead rely on the (about) two robot supervisors.

    The statement on slashdot: "This kind

  • Finally! (Score:4, Funny)

    by The_dev0 ( 520916 ) <hookerbot5000 AT gmail DOT com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:28PM (#6218203) Homepage Journal
    Just the thing to get the dried out coke and cigarette ash off my keyboard. I just hope it's powerful enough!

  • At last a Civil Article! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by C. Alan ( 623148 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:38PM (#6218317)
    Perhaps I am one of the few Civil Engineers who find myself reading /. So +karma to the editors for bringing this article. I still would like to know how it removes the concret and doesn't dammage the rebar. When you start getting aligator cracking in concrete roads, water has more than likely reached the rebar, rusting it. Some newer road specs require that the rebar be coated with epoxy. This cuts down on rust, and may allow for rebar reuse in the case stated with the article. --C. Alan, PE

  • Hmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by The_dev0 ( 520916 ) <hookerbot5000 AT gmail DOT com> on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:12PM (#6218575) Homepage Journal
    I always thought that paper beats rock? Wait, but scissors beats paper. Kiff, we have a conundrum!
  • How did the DOT get around the unions with this? Certainly going from 15 union guys to 2 union guys can't be what the union would want.
  • You know this thing will have a number 3 on the side of it :)

    (Sorry - I'm from Georgia and live there and have never gotten the whole NASCAR thing :)

  • Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Insightful)

    by as0k ( 316850 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @09:46PM (#6219543)
    Alright, I'm sure someone has the answer to this... what makes this thing a 'robot' as opposed to say... just a big fscking tool?

    I mean, it still takes to people to operate it, so it's by no means autonomous.

    As0k
    Self improvement is masturbation... therefore masturbation is self improvement...*zip*
  • No comment, I just enjoy typing, "a robot that destroys everything in its path."
  • What the well-dressed hydrodemolition operator is wearing this season: WaterArmor [nlbcorp.com].
  • According to the spam I receive each day, the construction workers could just send away for a certain wonder-product and use part of their anatomy to smash the bridges down.

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