r/mildyinteresting • u/petkipathri • May 22 '26

electrifying energy ⚡️ Solar powered robots clean solar panels in China

4.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

106 comments sorted by

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735

u/Teck_3 May 22 '26

Then what cleans the solar powered robot?

344

u/Dabox720 May 22 '26

Bob

131

u/Financial-Monk9400 May 22 '26

No bob only builds them

67

u/Ressy02 May 22 '26

And fixes them

45

u/That-Pin-7033 May 22 '26

No, that's Felix

21

u/night_fury00k May 22 '26

And wreck em

25

u/Financial-Monk9400 May 22 '26

Ralph

15

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

19

u/Maximum_Funny6328 May 22 '26

that’s max

6

u/Zoponen May 22 '26

DU DU DU DU MAX WERSTAPPEN

4

u/HawaiianCholo May 22 '26

No, Bill does the fixing. Bob does the science. Jeb flies and dies.

3

u/TandemShorts May 22 '26

What about Val?

1

u/HawaiianCholo May 22 '26

Val is currently leaving our solar system at 3x the speed of light (she misstepped on the ladder)

2

u/TandemShorts May 22 '26

Sacrifices are necessary for scientific success

11

u/Alexandre_Man May 22 '26

Who cleans Bob?

14

u/Amazing-Pear-1304 May 22 '26

me 🥵🥵🥵

1

u/ViftieStuff May 22 '26

Wade

1

u/Ok-Nothing8682 May 22 '26

This might be the first r/distractible reference I've seen out here in the wilds. Three peens in an international pod

1

u/jdros15 May 25 '26

Solar Powered Bob

37

u/TeaBagHunter May 22 '26

From what I recall it passes under a big brush so it cleans itself

17

u/Cluelessish May 22 '26

This is too smart

4

u/synack May 22 '26

Who cleans the brush?

13

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/TheWordBallsIsFunny May 22 '26

But then who cleans the solar powered brush cleaner?

3

u/Paelidore May 22 '26

It's solar powered brush cleaners all the way down!

1

u/Ok-Nothing8682 May 22 '26

Moderately arousing

17

u/Jotakakun_to May 22 '26

obviously another solar powered robot?

6

u/Cluelessish May 22 '26

But what cleans that solar powered robot?

5

u/geebeem92 May 22 '26

A solar powered bob

2

u/NINTSKARI May 22 '26

Bob is nickname for people named Robot

2

u/Jotakakun_to May 22 '26

A robot. But this time, it is solar powered.

1

u/le_nathanlol May 22 '26

solar fractal

2

u/TheKmank May 22 '26

It's solar powered cleaning robots all the way down.

2

u/Lemon_PlayzYT May 22 '26

a human, which takes much less effort than doing all those bigger panels by hand

1

u/THE_ATHEOS_ONE May 22 '26

Its solar powered robots all the way down.

1

u/Dizzi_Blue May 22 '26

The robot itself after a certain period maybe?

1

u/Ian_Huntsman May 22 '26

A smaller solar powered robot. Duh.

1

u/Crisocola95 May 22 '26

Solar powered solar powered robot cleaners of course.

1

u/andpaws May 23 '26

The snowplough driver, once he gets to work.

1

u/A_FVCKING_UNICORN May 23 '26

A tiny robot at the end of the line

1

u/Altruistic-Tap-4592 May 24 '26

Smaller solar powerd robots.

1

u/SpookyPower5 May 27 '26

you just need a to clean that robot rather than 100x the panels. Work efficency.

1

u/KoalaYeti May 27 '26

"Who washes the washmen?"

0

u/PhD_Pwnology May 22 '26

That's a much easier question to answer than who is going hand clean the miles of solar panels

111

u/Sea_Mission_7643 May 22 '26

how do they clean so well so fast, doesn't look like there's any water there

43

u/iHaku May 22 '26

the actual video is a bit longer and shows a large rotating brush under the pannel. i assume that it's soft enough to not damage the solar pannels directly, and since it's mostly just dust that accumulates on there, it should suffice for a long time. maybe they do a more thorough cleanup every so often after a few weeks/months.

10

u/secretdrug May 22 '26

i remember seeing a video of them coming around with a truck spraying (pressure washing?) the panels with water. Its all part of a system to fight off desertification. Water not only cleans the panels but feeds the grass. Panels provide shade. Then they get the locals to let their goat/sheep herds feed on the grasses. Animal droppings thus fertilize the grass. 

2

u/Merouxsis May 23 '26

Such a smart system. I wish we had stuff like that in the US

2

u/Chemguy1611 May 23 '26

And the more grass/plants around the panels, the more evaporative cooling and reduced operating temperatures.

28

u/EvilChick537 May 22 '26

Magnet

6

u/Lordofthewhales May 22 '26

How does a magnet clean off dust??

10

u/FeistyMasterpiece448 May 22 '26

Because dust is static.

87

u/LeePaceSitOnMyFace May 22 '26

Now make a smaller solar powered cleaner robot to clean the solar powered cleaner robot

25

u/GrapefruitPrimary186 May 22 '26

We brought in some cats for our mouse problem. But then we had to bring in dogs to run off the cats. Once they became a problem we brought in wolves to get rid of the dogs. What im asking for right now, sharks, is for 30,000 dollars for 50% of my company, I Bring in Crocodiles incorporated.

8

u/Funkythingsyoudo May 22 '26

Thought you were saying you wanted sharks to get rid of the wolves.

https://giphy.com/gifs/XWwIzh5GIWWf6

2

u/LeePaceSitOnMyFace May 22 '26

Sounds like a well thought out business model, im in.

But I have one question, what will be the final animal of them all and when that animal becomes a problem how would you deal with it 🤔

39

u/DeadMemesAreUs1 May 22 '26

Whoever added the music to this deserves to be banned

3

u/71d1 May 22 '26

I agree

2

u/restrictednumber May 22 '26

Was it, like, two different songs over each other? I thought somehow I had something playing in another window...!

6

u/pixeltweaker May 22 '26

Seems like an obvious solution.

3

u/picabo123 May 22 '26

Hopefully the cleaner gets looped into a cleaner for themselves.

6

u/Lifeboon May 22 '26

Do me next!

4

u/Daniel_Devito_Dong May 22 '26

At least take me out to dinner first

7

u/very_generic_alt May 22 '26

genuinely what the hell is this music 

5

u/Asleep_Fox_9340 May 22 '26

Disappointed I didn’t see an image with a solar powered robot cleaning the solar panels of the solar powered robot cleaning cleaning the the solar panels

6

u/eisenklad May 22 '26

could have improved speed and brush size by ditching that tiny panel and allowing the drone to be powered from the panels its close to.
negating the need for the robot's own solar panel cleaner.

9

u/sparkline1234567 May 22 '26

A reliable coupling that is also weather proof and flexible enough to allow the cleaner to pass from panel to panel would be a lot more expensive to produce. Here they can just be dumb cheap easy to replace panels.

1

u/escEip May 22 '26

i mean, depends on how exactly it's going to work, whether it's a magnet induction or just a wiring it can be more expensive (not "astronomically more expensive" but "not the best viable solution" expensive at least) or straight up dangerous. So i guess solar power is the best solution they could come up with? Maybe a battery inside of the drone may be better, so it cleans, and then stops for a bit to charge from the panels at the specific spots. Idk

2

u/recursion_is_love May 23 '26

How do the solar cleaner clean itself?

1

u/prettybluefoxes May 22 '26

But who cleans the solar panel robot cleaners.

1

u/ayalarol May 25 '26

This could be easily solved: when the mini robot has finished cleaning, it returns to its resting state where other cleaning brushes, powered by the energy already generated by the solar panels, could be placed.

1

u/Forelli_Corporation May 22 '26

I think these robots should be equipped with mini-robots with solar panels that will clean them.

1

u/therealdavidwiley May 22 '26

Is there a smaller solar powered robot that cleans that robot?

1

u/Medill1919 May 22 '26

America is so f'd.

1

u/Adventurous_Dog477 May 22 '26

It's solar powered robots al the way down.

1

u/jeejeeviper May 22 '26

This almost seems like a Rick and Morty bit. Now you need a smaller solar powered cleaner going up and down on the solar panel cleaner

1

u/Illustrious_Sea_962 May 22 '26

Now hook the a watering line up to the ends of it and grow crops between the panels

1

u/Glass-Crafty-9460 May 22 '26

Where does the water come from?

1

u/Ybalrid May 22 '26

And there's a Unitree humanoid robot that cleans the solar powered robot that clean the solar panels

1

u/David_Jonathan0 May 22 '26

Even the bot runs on solar!

1

u/the_tygram May 23 '26

Who cleans theirs?

1

u/Vivid_Literature5228 May 23 '26

Solar powered solar panel cleaner.
SPSPC.

1

u/MidwestSeagull May 23 '26

This is common practice is many places, not just China.

1

u/Friendly-Elephant486 May 24 '26

Et qui nettoie quand il n'y a pas de soleil.

1

u/sirbassist83 May 22 '26

meanwhile in the US we're bringing back coal. but dont worry, we put the word "clean" in front so its ok now

-1

u/-byb- May 22 '26

is this from a video game?

0

u/Slight_Sir_1436 May 22 '26

Doesn't look real to me either. It's definitely a render and not a real vid.

0

u/mooripo May 22 '26

That's very creative

-1

u/greywood84 May 22 '26

That poor little robot. He works harder than all of china in a sweat shop.