Oil Hunter Remote Controlled Marine Robot

Abstract

Oil spills pose a serious threat to marine ecosystems, coastal industries, and public health. Conventional oil spill cleanup methods are slow, labor-intensive, and often inefficient in large water bodies. This paper presents the design and implementation of an Oil Hunter Remote Controlled Marine Robot that can detect, collect, and store oil from the water surface using a manually operated wireless control system. Unlike autonomous systems, the proposed robot is remotely controlled using a wireless controller, allowing the operator to navigate the robot precisely toward oil spill locations. The robot integrates a propulsion system, oil collection mechanism, oil–water separation unit, onboard storage tank, and a wireless communication interface. The system is built using cost-effective components such as ESP32, motor drivers, DC motors, relay modules, and a dual-shock controller.

Introduction

The project presents a remote-controlled marine robot designed to clean oil spills from oceans, rivers, and ports. Traditional cleanup methods are slow, labor-intensive, and often unsafe. The proposed system offers a low-cost, compact, and efficient solution that can navigate on water, collect floating oil using a rotating drum skimmer, separate oil from water, and store the recovered oil in an onboard tank. Remote control improves safety, precision, and real-time operation compared to manual methods.

The problem statement highlights that existing systems are either expensive, bulky, autonomous (and complex), or unsuitable for small and shallow water bodies. Many solutions focus only on oil absorption instead of recovery, creating additional waste. Therefore, the need is for an affordable robotic system with oil recovery and storage capability.

The literature review discusses mechanical skimmers, remote-operated robots, and autonomous systems. While effective, most are costly, large, or lack integrated oil collection mechanisms. The proposed system addresses these limitations by combining remote navigation, mechanical skimming, and oil–water separation in one platform.

The hardware includes an ESP32 microcontroller, L298N motor driver, propulsion motors, a high-torque skimmer motor with pulley system, relay module, power supply, oil–water separator, and a floating aluminium–foam structure. The system operates through wireless control, where the operator navigates the robot, activates the skimmer, collects oil via adhesion, separates it from water, and stores it for reuse or safe disposal.

Overall, the project provides an efficient, safe, and cost-effective robotic solution for small-scale oil spill cleanup with improved environmental protection and operational convenience.

Conclusion

The Oil Hunter Remote Controlled Marine Robot is designed to provide a practical and cost-effective solution for collecting oil spills from water surfaces. Oil pollution in rivers, lakes, and industrial water bodies is a serious environmental issue that affects aquatic life and water quality. Conventional cleanup methods require manual effort and can be slow and unsafe. The proposed system uses a remotely controlled robotic platform that can move across the water surface and collect oil efficiently without direct human involvement. The robot operates using a wireless control system that allows the operator to guide it toward the contaminated area. The propulsion motors enable smooth navigation on water, while the rotating drum skimmer mechanism driven by a DC motor collects floating oil from the surface. The collected oil is then directed into a separation chamber and stored in a collection tank. The use of lightweight materials such as aluminium sheets and thermocol foam provides sufficient buoyancy and stability during operation. The project demonstrates that a simple robotic system can effectively assist in small-scale oil spill cleanup operations. It reduces human exposure to polluted water and improves the efficiency of oil collection. The system is also economical and easy to operate, making it suitable for small water bodies, ports, ponds, and industrial wastewater areas. In the future, the system can be improved by adding cameras for real-time monitoring, sensors for automatic oil detection, and GPS technology for better navigation. Such improvements can further enhance the efficiency and capability of the robot for environmental protection applications..

References

[1] M. Fingas, “Oil Spill Science and Technology: Prevention, Response and Clean-up,” Gulf Professional Publishing, Elsevier, 2016. [2] J. A. Fay, “The Spread of Oil Slicks on a Calm Sea,” Oil Spill Conference Proceedings, American Petroleum Institute, pp. 463–467, 1971. [3] Espressif Systems, “ESP32 Series Datasheet,” Espressif Systems, Shanghai, China, 2020. [4] STMicroelectronics, “L298 Dual H-Bridge Motor Driver Datasheet,” STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, 2018. [5] R. Siegwart, I. R. Nourbakhsh and D. Scaramuzza, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011. [6] International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), “Oil Spill Response Techniques and Equipment,” Technical Report, London, UK. [7] A. Gupta and R. Sharma, “Design of Robotic Systems for Environmental Monitoring Applications,” International Journal of Robotics and Automation, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 45-52, 2018. [8] S. Thrun, W. Burgard and D. Fox, Probabilistic Robotics, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Mrs. Birajdar S. P., Yugant More, Shambhuraje Chavan, Hemant Patil, Vaibhav Mahadik. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.