Monday, November 1, 2010
MIT developes oil-cleaning robots
I was reading over CNN's eco-solutions page and I stumbled across this article. It seems that some scientists at the SENSEable city lab at MIT created a machine/robot that swims through the water, attracting oil and repelling water. Supposedly it looks like an ice box with a conveyor belt attached to the back, but I'll let y'all be the judge of that! Each unit would cost $20k which actually isn't pricey compared to the cost of the damage control and man power needed to clean an oil spill. The robots are supposed to be sent out in swarms, covering a larger surface of water at one time, while each robot has a gps device that allows it to communicate with the other robots in the swarm, making sure they don't miss much oil. They are also able to hold up to twenty times their weight in oil, and then they are capable of bagging it and letting the backs float on the ocean's surface and be later picked up by someone and reused or they can burn the oil on the spot. These robots also run on solar power so they can just keep on working for a long,long time until human maintenance is required. There's more about them here: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/26/mit.oil.robot/index.html
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This is a cool idea. I wonder is the 100 to 200 million cost just the cost for deployment, or does it include the cost of the units. It seems like the units themselves (if there were tens of thousands of them) would cost much more than this. Also if they are able to operate around the clock on solar energy they must have a good battery. This storage is one of the main problems with solar energy as a viable option on land. Is this technology new, and if so, could it be adopted to efficiently store electricity produced by photovoltaic panels?
ReplyDeleteI believe this is an excellent idea. If these robots are deployed soon enough they can prevent the damage done by not being able to prevent the oil from coming ashore. The company that is at fault would, naturally, shoulder the cost to send out these robots which would serve as a penalty for causing the spill. This way businesses on the coasts near the spill would not be so severely impacted. And if the robots work as they are supposed to the clean up is much faster and much more efficient.
ReplyDeleteI do have some concerns though. Firstly, I am worried about them running on solar power because there could very well be a lot of cloud cover which would impact how much power their solar panels could generate not to mention they would more than likely have to run over night. Secondly, I wonder if their durability has been tested. For example, a hurricane passed over the Gulf oil spill. Would they be able to handle that kind of turbulence.
So overall i think it is a good idea im just not sure how well it has been thought out as of yet.
When i first read robots, i imagined little cute metal boxes with eyes and arms, then i looked at the pictures and it really does just look like an ice cooler box. Though the technology sounds like a great advancement, i can already see some problems with it. If a company were to launch these 20k robots out to see, it can get hit by a boat, stolen by a sailor, carried away by the sea,the likelyhood of it returning doesn't seem very high to me. In a test environment like in a pool or something i can see how these little guys can be really effective but if they were put somewhere like at the site of the BP oil spill, i'm not sure how they would fair...
ReplyDeleteWow. This is preety cool. It seems like if enough people look into this and if there's enough funding for further development, this might actually be effective.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not like the idea of the robot burning the oil.. That would just cause pollution over the seas. And if it's like the BP oil spill... That's A LOT of CO2 emission. But I guess there is never a "perfect solution" for any problem. Also, I think this robot can be incorporated and inspired to be used for other functions to such as cleaning up wastes or trash not just solely over water but other places, too. Even if, by some miraculous chance, we stop using oil to fuel transportation or electricity, this robot will be of great use.
I'm very interested in how this robot will turn out in few years.
I agree with some of the comments up here. Mostly about the casualties that might occur to these robots out on the sea. Obviously these robots are expensive and it would be an incredibly expensive disaster if say a storm came and destroyed all of these guys while they were cleaning up the water. I'm also with William with the testing of these robots. Before these guys can even be thought of as a viable investment, tests must be done with scenarios of almost every possible problem that can happen in the ocean. This robot idea sounds like a pretty cool thing though. I am just waiting for the nano-size version of these things.
ReplyDeleteThis thing reminds me of Wall-e, it does sounds like a good idea. it seems like the perfect solution to our current problem with oil spills. however i also agree with william, there are lots of things that could go wrong in open waters. wheather alone is bad, but the robot would also have to deal with the sea animals that might come across it. a shark for example might think its dinner. taking this into consideration, it is still a good idea. i think we should also use this technology for other clean up situations. like at a landfill, maybe we could make our own wall-e!
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