SeaSwarm robots to clean up oil spills in the future powered by the sun

Oil spill disasters like the one we saw a short while ago at the Gulf of Mexico can have some pretty disastrous results on our environment. Well, in future, robots might just do the job of cleaning up after the mess. To clean up BP’s mess, Ocean Therapy Solutions’s devices were used by containment teams in June. This time, the director Carlo Ratti and the associate director Assaf Biderman of M.I.T.’s Senseable City Lab have come up with a prototype device that will help clean up oil spills in the future. The device was unveiled at the Venice Biennale festival of architecture. Known as the SeaSwarm, this one is basically a 16-foot-long, 7-foot-wide solar-powered conveyor belt. Made out of a previously developed, oil-slurping “nanowire mesh”, this paper-like material absorbs up to 20 times its weight in oil.

The nanofiber mesh is stretched across rollers. It propels the floating unit through the water, slowly skimming the surface. Used in a swarm, these devices will work in groups and interact and coordinate using GPS and wireless technology. The solar powered oil-spill tackling warriors of the future!
[NYTimes]