Robot buoy to track oil spills

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends reports on a new robotic buoy under development - to patrol the pollution in our oceans and seas!

Yesterday, Japan Today reported about a prototype of robotic buoy developed at Osaka University to fight sea pollution in the event of an environmental disaster caused by an oil spill. The current prototype, dubbed SOTAB (short for 'Spilled Oil Tracking Autonomous Buoy') is a 110-kilogram GPS-equipped robot. The cylindrical buoy has a length of 2.7 meters and a diameter of 27 centimeters. The lead researcher admits that these robots will not be really ready before at least three years. But he would like to have these buoys installed on all oil tankers to be automatically dropped in the sea in case of an accident.

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