MIT Unveils Oil-Skimming Robot Swarm Prototype 123
destinyland writes "Today MIT reveals a swarm of autonomous floating robots that can digest an oil spill. The 16-foot robots drag a nanowire mesh that acts like a conveyor belt to soak up surface oil 'like paper towels soak up water,' absorbing 20 times its weight and then harmlessly 'digesting' the oil by burning it off. Powered by 21.5 square feet of solar panels, the 'Seaswarm' robots run on the power of a lightbulb, and with just 100 watts 'could potentially clean continuously for weeks' without human intervention, MIT announced. The swarm uses GPS data and communicates wirelessly to move as a coordinated group to 'corral, absorb and process' oil spills, and MIT researchers estimate that a fleet of 5,000 could clean up a gulf-sized spill within one month."
"clean up a gulf-sized spill within one month." (Score:4, Informative)
Re:OK, so it sops up some oil. Then what? (Score:4, Informative)
Then what? The oil then has to be transferred to some collection boat. That part isn't implemented.
The way I read it was that each bot disposed of the oil by burning it on-site. No need for central collection.
Re:Yeah! (Score:2, Informative)
Not "the surface".
The video also makes the claim - that 5,000 could clean up a 5,000,000 barrel spill in one month. Not "the surface" of a 5,000,000 barrel spill.
Stop getting your information from other mis-informed comments - read the mis-informed MIT article instead :-p