EPRI robot does the legwork in LED lighting study on energy efficiency

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With a little help from a robot named Scotty, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is researching  street and area lighting efficiency with an eye to replacing

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today's low-efficiency lighting with brighter, more efficient LED lighting. The problem with today's lighting systems is that the high-intensity discharge fixtures aren't at all efficient and have short lamp lives. Add the frequent cost of replacement to the rising cost of energy and labor and the existing lighting systems, found in streets and parking lots everywhere, are an expensive proposition. EPRI's LED Energy Efficiency Demonstration project was designed to find a better bulb that meets existing lighting requirements with better energy efficiency. But EPRI's engineers had a couple of problems. They wanted to make accurate light measurements close to the ground and in a tight, precise grid, something a person walking around with a light meter can't do very well. Scotty, a four-wheeled platform loaded with technology like light meters and an onboard computer does the job precisely with the help of an operator and a global positioning system. Also, the robot can do in minutes what it would take hours for a person to do, and much more accurately.

Quick Take: Consider how many millions of inefficient street and area lighting fixtures are blazing away for hours every day and you'll get an idea of the potential for energy savings. And we should expect to see more measuring and monitoring technology like Scotty from EPRI. The organization recently completed a prototype for a robot designed to monitor transmission lines.

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