Watching the live coverage of oil spilling into the Gulf Coast, did you ever think, “If only we had a machine that could just suck up the oil on the surface of the water…”?

Well, the one thing that you can say about the Gulf Coast disaster this summer is that it got some of the most brilliant minds in our country thinking about and developing better ways to respond, should such an event ever happen again. On Wednesday, we got a sneak peak at some potential solutions that have been in the works.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT)  SENSEable City Lab revealed its oil-sucking robots – named Seaswarm Robots – for the world to see. The robots are capable of spotting oil completely on their own, and when the oil is found, they use a GPS system to coordinate with their robot teammates to gather in one area and decide the most efficient way to clean up the mess.

Assaf Biderman, who oversaw the research team that developed the robots, described them to CNN as, “a carpet rolling on the surface of water.” The robots, which cost roughly $20,000 each, stand on a conveyor belt of sorts that floats and turns on the ocean’s surface. As it does, it propels the robot along. The robot, then, is able to lift oil out of the water using a nanomaterial that attracts only oil and not water. The robot can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil.

MIT, it appears, thought of it all when developing these environment-cleaning, conveyor belt-pushed, eco-bots. When they suck up the oil, there are two options: burn the oil on the spot by using a heater, or neatly bag the oil and leave it afloat to be picked up later. And the best part? The robots have no use for the oil they are used to clean. They are solar-powered, and only require about 100 watts of power — the same as a really bright lightbulb.

The robots will be officially introduced on Saturday in Venice, Italy. MIT estimates that the robots will be ready for use in a year.