Taiwan sent mosquito-fighting robots into its sewers
Mosquito larvae could be hiding out in sewers. Denny Müller / Unsplash Mosquitoes are a problem, especially when they’re carrying viruses like dengue and zika that they can pass to unsuspecting humans with a bite. Since there’s no vaccine against dengue, public health experts have to focus on controlling the blood-sucking critters themselves. When cities got big, mosquitoes, in search of standing water, took to the sewers to breed, making them harder to monitor. In response to this problem, a team of scientists at Taiwan National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center had an idea: send in robots. It’s a method that’s been tested by other countries, but often with flying robots that keep an eye on the ground below, and not with remote-controlled crawlers that snoop in sewers. In a new study...