WAYZATA, Minn. — Finding and solving water quality problems in the Land of 10,000 Lakes may soon have a new, lower-cost helper — an aquatic robot — that has been designed by and is undergoing tests at the University of Minnesota.

The autonomous underwater vehicle, which is named MeCO for Medium Cost Open Source Robot, costs under $10,000 to build versus more than 10 times that for a prebuilt machine. Open source means the design is out there for all, free of charge, offering multiple possibilities, including finding invasive species, inspecting ships, and locating trash.

“So, all you need to do is buy the parts, look at the manual — assembly manual — build it, and run it,” said Dr. Junaed Sattar, who is leading the University of Minnesota research.

In late August, Sattar and his team set up on the Wayzata Beach and Marina to conduct a field test on the device’s autonomous abilities. The robot is a unique-looking device with three clear tubes that contain the electronic brains and guts. If viewing from one end, the tubes are stacked like firewood with two on the bottom and one on the top, in essence, forming a triangle. Multiple propellers are mounted on the device.

The robot can also even “see.”

While preparing on the beach, Dave Widhalm, student research lead, asks a teammate, “Want me to restart the camera?”

Grant Schwidder, an undergraduate computer science major, who is running a connected laptop, later notes, “OK, cameras are updating.”

Once the robot is ready, Sattar and Widhalm don scuba gear, so they can “play” with the robot under water. They will also be joined by a red target, which looks orange under water, that Widhalm will tow to see if the robot can find and follow.  

“This is unique because it’s a diver’s buddy, as in, it does not only do autonomous behaviors; it  also understands the humans that it’s working with,” Sattar said.

Think about that. For example, a diver could point, and the robot would respond.

But on this August day, in the autonomous test, the human-robot interaction is limited to Widhalm towing the target to see what the robot sees and does.

Roughly an hour-and-a-half to the west of Lake Minnetonka on a New London lake, Jon Morales, program manager, Middle Fork Crow River Watershed District, who is doing his own water quality work in late August, is keenly interested in the aquatic robot testing.

“You can think of it as like sort of like a bloodhound or a heat-seeking drone,” Morales said.

Here on this stretch of the Middle Fork Crow River, Morales faces a water quality issue that he thinks could use the robot.

Annually, as ice leaves the river, a spring-only smell emerges, resulting from bacteria spending the winter gobbling river-bottom sediment that deposits above the New London dam.

“It smells. It smells pretty bad. So that hydrogen sulfide gas smells a lot like rotten eggs,” Morales said.

In exploring the annual odor, Morales collects data through a special probe and water samples at six locations — five of them monthly and one spot twice a month.

Still, under current methods, finding the odor-producing hot spots, which could ultimately lead to solutions, is tough.

“A better way would be amazing. You know this is a, it’s a time-consuming process. It’s tedious,” Morales said.

Back on Lake Minnetonka on that late August day, it takes mere minutes for the divers to see that the robot successfully chased the target.

Widhalm emerges from the water, proclaiming, “Worked great,” later adding, “Followed me around the entire time.”

“That was awesome; super nice,” Sattar declared.

During such field tests, Sattar has people like Jon Morales in mind.

“This is robots making jobs easier and extending the capabilities of the field experts, so Jon is one of those people,” Sattar said.

In the big picture, Sattar and his research team’s aquatic robot holds tremendous promise for Minnesota’s 10,000 jewels.

“So, the hope would be  that one day we can actually use this to clean up our lakes and keep them clean,” Widhalm said.

MINNEAPOLIS — A 38-year-old Minneapolis man is charged after a woman was found dead near a Minneapolis church back in July.

Byron Vinicio Varga Bautista is charged with second-degree murder after prosecutors say he beat a 57-year-old woman and left her body outside a church near Oak Park Avenue North and Penn Avenue North. Police were called to the area in the afternoon of July 14 and found a woman with injuries to her face and upper body. 

A medical examiner later identified her cause of death to be blunt force trauma. Court documents say the woman suffered hemorrhaging around her brain, neck and clavicle. Her hyoid bone was also fractured. Investigators later identified the woman to be a 57-year-old resident at a Minneapolis skilled nursing facility.

According to the criminal complaint, witnesses say they saw the woman with a man, later identified as Bautista, on the evening of July 13. Officials obtained video from Metro Transit buses that appeared to show Bautista and the woman travelling through the city and eventually leaving the bus near Penn Avenue North and Olive Avenue North. 

Court documents say surveillance videos from surrounding homes in the area captured Bautista and the woman walking toward the church where the woman’s body was eventually discovered. Prosecutors say traffic cameras then showed what appeared to be Bautista carrying the woman, and additional videos showed Bautista allegedly going back and forth to the area of the crime, before eventually leaving.

Police were driving around south Minneapolis on Sept. 19 when they spotted a man who fit the description of the suspect. He was arrested and remains in custody. According to court documents, Bautista identified himself in numerous images, but didn’t claim to know the victim and said he didn’t remember what happened on July 13.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — Lloyd Brant and Rosie Cole have performed as clowns at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival for 40 years. 

The two make up the duo Theatre of Fools, and their signature act involves magic, comedy and plenty of clucks. They not only love what they do, they love one another. 

“We met at mime school,” said Lloyd. 

“I was going to make a joke, but he told the truth,” said Rosie. 

Seriously, these two aren’t clowning around. They really met at mime school and started performing together, fell in love, got married, and raised a family with one another.

They admit it can be difficult to describe exactly what they do. They’re based out of Minneapolis and take their unique brand of ‘absurd theatrics’ to festivals all over the nation, oftentimes with kids in tow when they were younger.

“We were the cool parents,” Lloyd said. “Until they went to high school,” 

Their son, Gabriel Cole-Brant, didn’t exactly know what to tell people when they asked what his parents did. Even when he had been around the festivals all his life. 

“I was born out here,” said Gabriel. “When I was a kid, it just seemed normal.” 

He ended up getting a degree in economics and going into politics. 

“I was saying that I ran away from the circus to go into politics,” he smiled. 

But as his unicycle would tell you, everything comes full circle. Gabriel, now 29, is going into his second year performing at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Last year, he won best new act. 

“It really is a wonderful thing, totally a blessing,” he said. 

Gabriel, a.k.a., Gabs the Fool, performs his solo show at the Cirque Du Celeste stage, while his parents perform The Wacky Chickens, who perform on the Witchwood stage. Then, Gabriel and Lloyd end the day with a Father & Son Act.

“I’m completely fulfilled,” said Lloyd. “It’s such a pleasure to be working with him side by side on stage.”

The clowns will be performing one more weekend during the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.