United States.
A team of engineers, researchers and designers at the University of Maryland developed what they dubbed RoCo — a robotic personal air conditioner capable of detecting when a person is too hot or too cold to take action to make them feel more comfortable.
The overall goal is to someday reduce the energy used to cool or heat a room, office or industrial space, regardless of whether someone is there. RoCo, short for Roving Comforter, would follow its owners as a self-propelled vacuum cleaner and provide enough comfort to allow homes and businesses to adjust the thermostat up to four degrees.
Roco provides cooling or heating as needed using directional Wi-Fi from the portable or RF device. The advanced module is fully autonomous and equipped with facial recognition technology to enable complementary functions such as security access checking and mobile personal toolbox.
Federal energy authorities estimate that 14% of U.S. energy production goes in search of air conditioning, heating and ventilation in buildings – many of which are wasted. That use contributes to nearly the same percentage of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. A saving of just two degrees of energy would be "a huge amount," equal to converting a quarter of all vehicles on the road to electric hybrids.
Roco's smart nozzle offers air conditioning to the parts of the body that need it most. As various parts of the body have different levels of sensitivity for wind chill, RoCo ensures that they benefit from cooling or heating further through flexible nozzles that adjust to air supply locations and conditions.
Source: http://www.ceee.umd.edu/roco
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