Engineers at the University of California, Riverside have created a floating robotic film that can be trained to clean up oil spills at sea or remove pollutants from drinking water. 

This new membrane, powered by light and fueled by water, can be used indefinitely to clean remote areas. Given that many of these areas have nowhere to charge, this is crucial. 

The research was published in "Science Robot".

Li Zhiwei is a chemist at UCR. 

"Our motivation is to make the soft robot sustainable and able to adapt to changes in the environment on its own. If sunlight is used as power, the machine is sustainable and does not require additional energy," Li said. "This movie can also be reused."

The movie is called Neusbot, named after a class of animals including water striders. Insects like this can move along the surface of lakes and slow-moving streams by using pulsed motion, which is exactly what scientists can replicate with Neusbot. 

This is not the first film to bend in response to light, but previous versions could not produce the adjustable and mechanical oscillations that Neusbot can achieve. By using this movement, it can work on any surface of the water.

"There are not many ways to use light to achieve this kind of controllable movement. We solved this problem with a three-layer film like a steam engine," Li said.

Neusbot uses a similar principle to that of early trains to power it. However, instead of using steam in boiling water to power its movement, it relies on light as a power source. 

The middle layer of the film is porous, it can hold water, as well as iron oxide and copper nanorods. Nanorods convert light energy into heat. Nanorods evaporate water and provide power for the pulse movement of the water surface.

Since the bottom layer is hydrophobic, Neurobot is also not affected by the waves. This means it will always float back to the surface. Nanomaterials can also withstand high salt concentrations without being damaged. 

"I have full confidence in their stability in a high-salt environment," Li said. 

The direction of Neusobot is controlled by changing the angle of its light source. With the help of the sun, the robot moves forward, but with additional light sources, it can control the Neurobot to swim and clean. 

Its current version has three layers, and the team hopes to eventually test the fourth layer that can absorb oil or other chemicals. 

"Usually, people will send boats to the oil spill site for manual cleaning. Neusbot can do this like a robot vacuum cleaner, but on the water," Li said. 

The team also hopes to try to control the robot's oscillation patterns more precisely and provide it with more complex movements.

"We want to prove that these robots can do a lot of things that the previous version did not do," Li concluded. 

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