Open Hardware for the Ocean

Cesar Harada wants to improve water quality by removing oil, radioactivity, and plastics from the oceans. After the BP oil spill Harada quit his job, moved to New Orleans, and looked for a fast solution to cleaning the gulf waters. Open source philosophy was important to him, along with speed and efficiency. Cesar explains his inspiration and methods in the TED Talk A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills.

The first attempts made at innovation were pulling the oil absorbent materials against the wind, and tacking the boat back and forth to cover maximum areas of ocean. Winds, waves and currents made this technique difficult and Cesar was struck by the idea of moving the rudder from the back of the boat to the front.

Prototyping small boats with 14 centimeter rudders and 4 meter long absorbents proved to be a large improvement and online collaboration with some Korean builders led to the development of Protei. After experimentation the idea of the entire boat becoming a rudder and changing shape was born.

Harada calls his technology Open Hardware for the Ocean. Protei boiled down to its essence efficiently carries something long and heavy through the water. Several different users are building and launching their own Protei, collecting data and sharing it with the world.

This TED talk was published in 2012 but the Protei movement is still moving along. The current prototypes are revision 011.1, with more maneuverability than the 008 revision designs from the 2012 video. Harada now resides in London but is active with groups around the world, taking Fukushima radioactivity data from the water in 2014 and working with Hong Kong’s MakerBay in June 2015.

Cesar’s presentation is brilliant with a great mix of explaining his accomplishments and wide eyed wonder about what the near future might hold for his inventions. He’s inspired makers around the world to go out, develop floating robots, and collect data. A builder’s kit to make your own Protei is available through the Scoutbots website, and users are encouraged to share their experiences and help build the databank.