by David Geer
Contact the author at geercom@windstream.net
Robots Clean Oil Spills, Climb
and Crawl Anywhere
Seaswarm robots and snake robots have been created to service many types
of terrains and environments. Between them, they greatly improve the
quality of work that robots can perform, cleaning and maintaining a variety
of environments.
Seaswarm — One of Practical
Robotics Shining Stars
The seaswarm robots are prototyped, autonomous,
water-treading swarm robots designed to continually
maneuver to oil spills and clean them up by working in
tandem. At $25,000 per robot, 5,000 of them — the
number necessary to clean a spill the size of the Horizon in
one month (according to its creators at Georgia Tech) —
would cost $125,000,000. British Petroleum estimated the
actual clean-up costs for Horizon were more than $8 billion.
The prototype is 16 feet long by seven feet wide with a
yellow head and a black conveyor belt track. Its size enables
it to maneuver coastlines and small waterways where larger
oil skimming solutions are not small enough to go. The
robot is buoyant and the conveyor/track flexes to adjust to
the water and the waves. The scientists tested the robot in
the Charles River in August ‘10 where it stayed afloat and
powered itself via solar cells located on top of its head. The
robot made its public debut at the Venice Biennale’s Italian
Pavilion in late August. The Biennale is an international
festival with participants representing the arts and
architecture. The festival organizers devoted it to
nanotechnology and how it will change our lives by 2050.
The seaswarm robot prototype in the Charles River; note its yellow head with drive motor and heated oil dissipation inside.
10 SERVO 12.2010
