#1- They are small. Each can only handle a micro amount of oil before the "paper towel" will have to be refilled. Heating the oil on side is pretty much out of the question. The amount of energy required to burn the oil would pretty much drain the batteries in a few seconds. (not to mention that you are now moving the pollution into the air, with the vapors from the burn).
#2- They claim that a swarm of 5000 robots can clean up the area of the Golf oil spill .... What it doesn't say is that that is just for ONE DAY of oil spill. An that is if their calculations are right .... But in reality, it would be a miracle if the calculations were 50% on target.
The theory sounds nice ... but the implementation is pretty much useless.
Researchers at MIT have developed independent robots that use a revolutionary nanomaterial to absorb considerable amounts of oil - up to 20 times their weight. Powered by solar panels, the low-cost robots which are designed to work in fleets, would use GPS and wireless communication systems to navigate a spill site.
