Robot Living

Using a nanofabric developed at MIT that absorbs oil and not water, scientists at MIT envision a fleet of Seaswarm robots cleaning up oil spills.

They also state that a swarm of 5,000 Seaswarm robots would take about a month to clean up the oil spill in the size of the one in the Gulf Coast.

Seaswarm is intended to work as a fleet, or “swarm” of vehicles, which communicate their location through GPS and WiFi in order to create an organized system for collection that can work continuously without human support. Because they are smaller than commercial skimmers attached to large fishing vessels, they are able to navigate hard to reach places like estuaries and coast lines. Seaswarm works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil from a single site before joining other vehicles that are still cleaning. Oil is “digested” locally so that Seaswarm does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, which would dramatically slow collection time.

The nanomaterial can absorb up to twenty times it’s own weight and the material is heated to remove the oil.  The Sea Swarm is powered by solar panels and could operate autonomously for several weeks.  Seaswarm is sixteen feet long and seven feet wide.

The Seaswarm prototype was recently unveiled at the Venice Bieniale’s Italian Pavillion.

Click through for a video.

Link via MIT.edu via (Physorg)
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Tags: MIT

Orca, a robotic glider from the University of East Anglia in Norwich England has recently made it’s 1000th dive off the coast of Spain.

The underwater robot can operate autonomously or be controlled by satellite and is being used to monitor water conditions such as temperature, salt levels, cloudiness and current.

A team led by Dr Jan Kaiser and Professor Karen Heywood from the University of East Anglia has partnered with the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas in Vigo to undertake this project.

The glider rises or sinks using a buoyancy engine with internal and external reservoirs and an electric pump to move oil between the two, which changes its density. We control it all the way from Norwich, by sending commands via Iridium satellite communications. ‘Orca’ has already clocked up more than 1000 dives on its current mission.

Off the west coast of the Iberian peninsula, upwelling of deep waters is a recurring phenomenon in summer and our current glider mission will provide one of the most detailed studies to date of the changes in the water column during and after an upwelling event. Upwelling brings nutrients to the surface, which are vital to sustaining biological production and fish yields, an important factor in Vigo, Europe’s largest fishing port.

You can see a map and plot points of where Orca has been diving here.

Link via (EDP24)

Tags: University of East Anglia

The AQUA2 robot from McGill University in Montreal can move on land, dive and also swim in the water.

The robot is also able to move around in sand and snow, but think the most impressive thing  though, is how it acts in the water.

In the water AQUA2 is able to follow you using gesture based control and can actually hover, kind of like when you tread water to stay in place.

AQUA2 is able to go to a depth of about 120 feet and uses 48 lithium ion batteries for power.  AQUA2 is programmed in C++ using a library called RoboDevel.

Click through for a video.

Link via (Endgadget)
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Tags: mcgill university

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is sending a robotic submarine called Sentry to the Gulf of Mexico to help examine the oil plume rising from the BP oil disaster.

According to oceanographer John Delaney, Sentry looks like “a flying bar of soap.”

Sentry can dive up to 4,500 meters deep and is powered by over 1,000 lithium-ion batteries that have been adapted to handle the underwater pressure.  Using a mass spectrometer, Sentry can detect very small quantities of chemicals in the water.

Sentry also has the ability to adjust it’s course on the fly and will hopefully give scientists a 3 dimensional image of the oil plume.

Click through for a video of what Sentry can do and also read about Waldo the glider searching for oil from the BP disaster.

Link via (Reuters) Photo by Mitch Eland from the UWnews.org

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Tags: BP, Gulf of Mexico, UAV, wood's hole oceanographic institute

We have all seen at least one or two robotic fish by now, such as this robotic fish that was released in Spanish waters to search for pollution.

Well, now we have a robotic fish that can actually lead a school of fish.  This robotic fish was developed by Maurizio Porfiri, an assistant professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Shown here is Maurizio with the robot that looks like a black heart.  Using ionic polymers, the robot acts like a muscle when a current or voltage is applied.  The robotic fish swims silently and is slightly larger than the other fish, allowing it to lead them.  Some day this technology could be used to lead the fish to safety in case of danger.

We also wonder what this may someday means for commercial fishing.  Will catching fish be as easy as dropping a robot in the water and watching all the fish swim into your net?

Link via (CNET)

Tags: fish, Maurizio Porfiri, new york university, NYU, robotic fish