How Robots Clean Up an Oil Spill

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How Robots Clean Up an Oil Spill

http://senseable.mit.edu/seaswarm

Those nerds at MIT have come up with something really amazing (not the first time). It’s a swarm of autonomous robots that talk to each other as they make their way around a spill, gobbling up the oil. Why didn’t we think of that?

More info at Sea Swarm.

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By Queenie, October 12, 2010 at 11:45 am Link to this comment

When they make one that will suck up politicians I’ll get excited. Till then, meh.

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By Donald Nygaard, October 11, 2010 at 4:54 pm Link to this comment

This is a tremendous innovation. However, as I recall, the vast amount of oil remained below the surface. Please characterize the totality of the oil spill and consider the effectiveness of the proposed solution in dealing with the larger quantity. Keep up the good work!

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By glider, October 11, 2010 at 12:51 pm Link to this comment

O.K., except it is cleaning the ocean by dumping the volatile component into the air more quickly than does the does the sun. That has value in terms of minimizing the spread but I would not call this a solution. How often would the no volatile component need to be removed to prevent saturation of the fabric employed? Interesting concept regardless.

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