This study aims to propose the concept design of oil spill protection robot which can rapidly intervene to control the oil spillage situation at the sea. Taking into account the fact that a huge amount of oil is transported trans-continentally by oil tanker, none of industrialized countries are completely safe from the marine oil spill which results in social, economical and ecological damages to their communities. The employment of double hull-oil tanker, pipe line transporting can be most safe way. Yet complete prevention of oil spill is probably not realistic. Accordingly the alternative solution to control marine oil spill and minimize the damages caused by the incident using intelligent robot technology based on swarm control method is proposed. The main features of oil spill protection(OSP) robot is explained via following three perspectives. Firstly, from functional point of view, OSP robot system safely and efficiently replaces oil boom installation manually conducted by human workers with intelligent robot technology based on swarm control theory. For second, its modular architecture brings efficient storage of main components including oil boom and facilitates maintenance. For the last, its geometric form and shape enables whole system to be installed to helicopter, boat or oil tanker itself with ease and to rapidly deploy the units to the oil spill area.

• 김지훈 | Kim Ji-Hoon
• 김명석 | Kim Myung-Suk