l'Actualité du Solaire

Researchers at the EPFL have developed low-cost, modular, solar-powered floating robots to cover Chile's water reservoirs to prevent evaporation. Techniques used so far (see below)

are the covering of water points either with small plastic balls or with a tent-like canvas. These methods are expensive to deploy and remove, or are not modifiable to fit the shape or size of the waterhole, which changes with evaporation.

The EPFL has developed robots in the shape of small floating tiles, capable of assembling themselves automatically on the water, moving according to the tank and its shape, and operating thanks to a solar panel placed on their surface. The idea is to cover only sunny areas, which minimises the number of robots to be deployed.

EPFL of 20 September