Underwater robots to help stem oil spill

Oil firm Petron is turning is turning to robots to try to keep a massive oil spill from getting any worse after a tanker carrying 53,000 gallons of the black gold sank off the coast of the island of Guimaras in the Philippines on August 11th. So far, the spill has affected some 40,000 nearby residents and damaged close to 200 miles of coastline, with the potential to spread even further. According to Petron, the sinking is also the deepest one in recent memory, making it impossible for divers to even inspect the vessel, hence the robots. As soon as they've pinpointed the exact location of the tanker, the salvage team will send down a remote-operated vehicle to asses the damage. If the ship is upright they'll just connect some lines and suck out rest of the oil inside; but things aren't so accessible, they'll use the robot to drill directly into the oil tanks and siphon it out the hard way. Hmm, forcing robots to clean up our dirty messes- this is something they definitely won't forget during the inevitable uprising.

[Via Robot Gossip]

[vc @ Aug 24th 2006 6:06PM]

53,000 gallons or 53,000 barrels?

53k gallons isn't very much oil for a tanker. Each "barrel" however is 42 gallons, bringing the spill to 2.23 million gallons.

[Phillip Lamb @ Aug 24th 2006 6:09PM]

I, for one, welcome our robot overlords. Even if they may suck. Oil, that is.

[Raymond Deppe @ Aug 24th 2006 6:33PM]

It's 53,000 gallons not barrels, and that is the amount spilled sofar (they estimate.) The tanker holds another 450,000.

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news05_aug25_2006

[Sam @ Aug 24th 2006 6:48PM]

"carrying 53,000 gallons of the black gold "

it says "carrying", not how much it spilled.

[macattacks10 @ Aug 24th 2006 6:53PM]

I like the touch where you wrote "asses" instead of "assess."

Nonetheless, interesting that they are using robots to do this.

[certus @ Aug 25th 2006 10:41AM]

My gawd! Soon they'll be drilling holes in us and sucking out our bodily fluids.

[Neonic @ Aug 24th 2006 8:06PM]

Just to let you know there is a mistake on the description. "Oil firm Petron is turning is turning ..."

[Rob @ Aug 24th 2006 9:03PM]

I know this isn't a tech-related comment, but oil spills suck ass!

[alex @ Aug 24th 2006 11:50PM]

So what makes this news ? ROV's (Remotley Operated Vehicles) are used in the offshore industry all the time on many different projects and have been doing so for many years ... I work with them on regular basis.

[Don @ Aug 25th 2006 1:08PM]

Alex, because there is an oil spill..and a robot will be used...it doesn't say that it is a new technology.

[alex @ Aug 25th 2006 3:37PM]

Your right Don its neither a new technology or a new use for an ROV.... So my again question why did this get posted ?

[Ulf Karlsson @ Sep 3rd 2006 9:46AM]

Check our robot instead. www.invo.se Want to buy stocks? We are going for the sunken ship SS Mangkalihat with this robot.

[Ulf Karlsson @ Sep 3rd 2006 10:29AM]

Check out www.invo.se for a remote robot that will blow you away.