MAROKO133 Update ai: Australian solar farm deploys AI-powered robots to install almost 500

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Australian solar farm deploys AI-powered robots to insta

An Australian electricity and gas provider has been using autonomous robots at its 250-megawatt solar farm, where nearly 500,000 panels are being installed ahead of schedule with the help of AI-powered machines.

The robots, designed to speed construction and improve safety, are being trialed at ENGIE’s photovoltaic Goorambat East Solar Farm. The site is located less than a mile south-east of the Goorambat township in Victoria.

“It will have a generating capacity of up to 250 MW, which is enough to power up to 105,000 average Victorian homes,” Justin Webb, ENGIE site representative said.

Developed by US-based Luminous Robotics, the LUMI S4 fleet uses AI-driven pick-and-place technology to autonomously lift and position solar modules onto racking structures.

Human crews then complete the securing process, cutting down on repetitive manual labor while increasing efficiency and reducing injury risks.

Robots boost solar power

To develop the robots, Luminous Robotics secured USD 4.9 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The funds were part of its USD 10 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge.

The machines autonomously lifted and placed panels onto racking structures, at the Goorambat East site, located near the city of Benalla, approximately 130 miles northeast of Melbourne.

This division of labor reportedly reduces one of the most physically demanding aspects of solar farm construction. It also improves both safety and efficiency while allowing the human workforce to focus on skilled tasks.

The system, first used for pilings and now for panels, marks Luminous’ debut of its LUMI robots outside the US, showcasing the future of solar farm construction.

“The intended higher productivity of these autonomous systems will reduce the cost of renewable energy projects and enable projects to be built in less time – which will bring down energy costs for consumers and potentially allow more solar farms to be built,” Webb continued.

The solar farm will have a capacity of up to 250 MW once complete. It will supply electricity to more than 100,000 average homes. Commissioning has already begun, with first energization expected before the end of October 2025 and full operation targeted for mid-2026.

Reshaping clean energy

Webb revealed that the robots require skilled technicians to help upskill the renewable workforce and boost productivity. He noted they could also benefit solar projects in remote, harsh regions where conditions are unsafe for workers.

“In the longer term, with continued development, robots like these will also enable a reduction in health and safety related risks from construction projects, for example reducing the manual handling of heavy solar panels,” he explained.

Jay M. Wong, Luminous Robotics CEO and founder elaborated that the Australian deployment of the LUMI fleet provided vital data, performance insights and real-life results to support global adoption.

“Our LUMI robots exceeded our target production rate and fueled by support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), we’re keen to accelerate our next phase where we fine tune the LUMI fleet’s capabilities,” Wong said.

Meanwhile, Luminous and ARENA are preparing to release and open source solar construction’s largest, most comprehensive robotics dataset in the coming months. “We believe this is the honest approach to truly democratize solar for humanity,” Wong concluded.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: White House Investigates Whether to Chop Space Shuttle Disc

On October 11, 2012, NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery embarked on its arduous, 12-mile journey from an airplane hangar to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The iconic spacecraft had just survived its final “flight” while strapped to the roof of a Boeing 747.

Officials went to extreme efforts to prevent the Shuttle from being dismantled during transport. The streets of LA were too narrow, for instance, forcing officials to temporarily remove traffic lights. Around 400 trees lining the city’s streets even had to be cut down to make way. (Around 1,000 trees were eventually replanted along the route to replace them.)

Now NASA is preparing to move Discovery, which flew 39 flights between 1984 and 2011, from the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to the Space Center Museum in Houston, Texas — and this time, chopping it into pieces for the trip is entirely on the table.

Baked into president Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law this summer, was a provision by Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to spend $85 million for the relocation.

As NASA Watch reports, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget is investigating whether to tear the Discovery into pieces to move it to Texas, raising alarm bells among those looking to preserve an important and symbolic relic of the United States’ space program.

“This development is unprecedented and alarming,” wrote NASA Watch, a blog by former NASA scientist Keith Cowing. “NASA did not design the shuttle orbiters to be disassembled, and complicating factors include the shuttle’s aluminum frame, [roughly] 24,000 delicate ceramic tiles that coat the shuttle’s underside (the black part), and [around] 2,000 thermal insulation fabric blankets that coat the rest of the shuttle (the white part).”

“Disassembling Discovery would cause significant and irreparable damage to these and other portions of the shuttle,” the blog concluded.

The Smithsonian reached out to the Congressional Authorizing & Appropriating Committees, concluding that the “Discovery will have to undergo significant disassembly to be moved,” according to a letter obtained by NASA Watch.

“Discovery is the most intact shuttle orbiter of the NASA program, and we remain concerned that disassembling the vehicle will destroy its historical value,” the letter reads.

The space agency also found that moving it could be far more costly than anticipated, estimating a range of $120 million to $150 million, significantly more than the $85 million provisioned by Cornyn and Cruz.

“It’s a goofy idea,” NASA Watch’s Keith Cowing told Washington, DC-based news station WUSA9. “It’s like taking the Washington Monument, sawing it into pieces, and moving it somewhere.”

Officials agree that it makes little sense to move the delicate spacecraft.

“Viewing and preserving this artifact at the Smithsonian allows scholars and the public to appreciate the story of how Americans were the first to develop a reusable system to transport humans to space, laying the groundwork to move humans back to the Moon and on to Mars,” the Smithsonian wrote in its letter.

But Republican lawmakers aren’t looking to back down.

Cornyn accused the Smithsonian of “clearly grasping at straws and denying precedent” in a statement to WUSA9. “Discovery belongs in Houston, and will make the journey there safely, securely, and efficiently in accordance with the law, whether the woke Smithsonian and its cronies in Congress like it or not.”

More on NASA drama: Whistleblowers Say NASA Is Poised to Kill an Astronaut

The post White House Investigates Whether to Chop Space Shuttle Discovery Into Pieces appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com