Hi all,
I bought a cabin in Denmark a few years ago. It is a real nice cabin with a great view overlooking a natural pond. But unfortunately vegetation has over many years built up quite a big area of sump / mud / grass in it. I estimate some 1500 square meters. Having machinery to come and clean the area will be very costly - something like the equivalent of US$15,000.
So inspired by those robotic lawn mowers, I am thinking of building a small robotic raft with a mud pump on it and some propellers to move it around and a computer to control it all.
I am a computer developer / software architect myself, and would be able to build and program all the electronics. But I need to team up with someone to be responsible for the mechanical construction.
I believe that a good solution will have business potential, since there is a LOT of ponds out there suffering from the vegetation build up problem.
I hope this forum can help bringing a team together around this idea. Please let me know, if you yourself are interested in participation, or if you have ideas on how to move on.
All the best,
Anders / Denmark
Welcome Anders, here is your challenge, get a small row boat and a garden shovel and go out on your pond. Try to simply dig out a scoop of mud while in the boat. You will find the boat offers the path of least resistance and will simply push away. Machines that are not anchored do a lot more mixing of water than mud removal. That said, robotics can do a lot of labor intensive work.
I have been thinking about this problem for years. I have been toying with the idea of a remotely operated submersible Bulldozer of sorts. My vision is that it would crawl along the bottom pick up a scoop of mud and drive back out of the pond to dump it. Essentially doing the same process as draining and excavating only using remote operated submersible equipment.
PS I have 38 years experience in computer controlled industrial machinery. I run a certified four apprenticeship program to train young people to become journylevel technicians. Secondly I do R&D in the same field. So that makes me just smart enough to try stuff that does not work. I am also hopelessly addicted to ponds. Additionally I'm part Dane as I assume you are.
Hi Woodster,
Thanks a lot for your reply. Well, I'm pretty much 100% Danish, as far as I know. I graduated as electronics engineer in 1981 and have done real time programming, including automation and positioning (GPS and Decca) ever since. So I guess we have quite a lot in common in that area too.
I am thinking of some kind of a grinder mounted in the end of a maneuverable pipe and a pump. The grinder should grind the vegetation and soil/mud so that it can be pumped through a 2-3" hose onto land.
I see your point in the boat shovel example, but all we need is a little force that'll push the grinder head into the mud. I believe a couple of propellers could do that.
And a simple positioning algorithm could assist in learning and shaping the pond bottom landscape. It will take weeks to shape the bottom, but who cares? As long as it all works automatically and quietly.
If you would like to discuss this matter further, you are more than welcome to mail me on pond@gate3a.com
Anders,
When I first read your post, one of those robotic vacuum cleaners came to mind. There are several brands here that you just sit it on the floor and turn it on when you leave for work in the morning. If spends the day randomly chasing your cat around the house while it cleans the floor. You come home to a clean floor (and an unhappy cat!
).
Or are you thinking about something more like what is shown in the link below but on a smaller scale and using robotics?
http://www.aquaticbiologists.com/equipment--tools/abi's-muck-grinder
Good Luck,
Bill D.
What about a robotic maneuverable conveyor belt like what may be used in a gravel pit? I could see the belt made from interlocking rubber trays or a rubber fins that will let water out, but keep debris in. The submersible end would use on-shore weight to drive down some saw blades to possibly chop chunks of crud to the appropriate size, where the conveyor could take it away. It would be big, expensive, and cool.
A similar yet slower approach would use a single larger heavy metal tray on cables. Sink it down with saw blades for chopping and a shovel like front and trap. Fill it up, drag it back out. Basically an automatic drag line. Maybe a claw on the front to pull debris in, then hold it down when the drag is pulled back out.
I hope you come up with something clever that works. It is certainly a difficult problem considering you wont know what you will find in a pond bottom. Trees, cars, ordinance, preserved neanderthals, all of which don't fit through a pump. Probably it would be best to run a metal detector across a pond before beginning, especially if it is natural and you don't know all of its history.
I get such a kick out of this site. Bright, knowledgeable people with a sense of humor. If your going to try and control a pond at any level you need to have a sense of humor, it can be very humbling. This problem is one we all have and a sound solution would be welcomed by all, not to mention worth a bunch of cash.
I shall ponder (pun intended) a solution once again.
Anders if the machine does take days to do the job I think that's fine. If the machine works at a slower pace there is less disruption to the environment. If you can drain a pond that is still the best method IMO. If you can't drain the pond and you are not concerned with your water quality and shoreline being messed up you hire an excavator and let him splash around. A machine of the type you suggest would be for those who want to keep their fish, water and environment as they are, minus the mud. There are a bunch of people that fit in that group.