The ever increasing levels of pollutants in our oceans is a matter of grave concern as they are large reservoirs of marine wildlife and huge pollution levels threaten the entire ocean ecosystem. It would have catastrophic effects in terms of changing world climate and rising ocean levels. The Oceanic Cleaning System offers an ingenious viable panacea against the ill effects of besmirched ocean waters. The Oceanic Cleaning system units have inbuilt swarm artificial intelligence which can act on its own lowering the need of ground zero hands on operations. It also provides accurate data which can be used to amass imperative information about our oceans.
Its an innovative design to capture the plastic particles with satellite units using Plankton’s. It works by using the inherent behavior of plankton’s and the buoyancy of the plastic particles. The plastic which is stored in the main unit is efficiently removed in a safe and energy efficient manner. The plastic detritus can be easily collected and sent for recycling.
The fact that the Oceanic Cleaning System remains totally submerged under water insulates it from the forces of nature. It is emptied from the gathered plastic, once it is full, by using a service vessel that can also reinforce it with requisite batteries. The filter process is usually carried out at night when there are no plankton’s on the water surface and it’s made sure that the filtering process is slow as it is intended to keep the disturbance of ocean life to a bare minimum.
The base unit is designed in a round shape to avoid floating debris getting stuck in it. It uses water tanks and compressed air to move up and down in water, to move horizontally in water. It alternates the water tank and compressed air ratio to make one side heavier than the other.
The Oceanic Cleaning System design has been greatly inspired by some magnificent sea creatures. For instance, the Manta rays and cuttlefish, both use lateral fins forming sinusoidal waveforms. This technique of moving forward lowers the risk for immobilization immensely in comparison to propellers. The upper part of the O.C.S is also designed as a fin, which acts as an antenna to communicate with the base unit when the satellite is skimming the surface for plastic particles.
Via: KNEGADESIGN