Using Robots To Clean Up Oil Spills

We may not have figured out how to stop oil spills from happening, but the folks at SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT are one step closer to a solution to cleaning up the aftermath. Their newest project, a swarm of robots called SeaSwarm, proposes to skim the ocean surface and remove oil. The robots use "a photovoltaic-powered conveyor belt made of a thin nanowire mesh to propel itself and collect oil," MIT said in a statement. The first prototype was successfully tested in Boston's Charles River in August, and it responded well to the water's changing surface. The robots move on the water's surface autonomously, and the cells generate enough energy to keep the bots moving for a few weeks.