Check this out:
Hewlett-Packard Labs "cool team" uses ActivMedia's PatrolBot robot to control energy costs in their model server facility. (http://news.com.com/1601-2-948803.html)
HP robot helps data keep its cool
Chandrakant Patel, principal scientist, HP Labs
August 7, 2002, 12:53 PM PT
4 minutes 6 seconds
Chandrakant Patel of HP Labs shows CNET Radio's Desmond Crisis new technologies in development that should help regulate energy use in data centers. One prototype: a robot that keeps watch on rising temperatures.
That is too cool. We need to get SIUE to put in a data center like this and a robot. :-)
Here's a senior project idea. Equip one of the robots with heat sensors and a thermal imaging camera to check the labs and classrooms for excessive heat use. If the robot catches a person turning the heat up past, say, a balmy 70 degrees, it should take a picture, send it to me, and clamp on to the person's ankle until I arrive to rectify the situation. Just a thought.