Meet Jellyfishbot, the robot that eats sea trash
[August 6, 2021: The Brighter Side of News]
The Jellyfish, a little catamaran operated by remote control, which is capable to clean water by collecting rubbish on the water's surface (CREDIT: IADYS)
Tourists visiting the picturesque port at Cassis, southern France, often see an unedifying sight: plastic bags, discarded drinks bottles, and even used surgical masks, floating in the water among the boats in the marina.
But the port has found a solution, in the shape of a bright yellow remote-controlled electric powered boat that weaves around the harbour sucking the trash into a net that it trails behind its twin hulls. The boat, called Jellyfishbot, is about the size of a suitcase and so can get into the corners and narrow spaces where rubbish tends to accumulate but which are difficult for cleaners with nets to reach.
This tiny bot is helping to clean up the sea. The ‘Jellyfishbot’ is a robotic sea cleaning device. It is operated by a remote control, and its creators say it can turn corners and enter narrow spaces to collect trash like plastic bags, beverage bottles, and used surgical masks from areas of water where garbage collects.
Jellyfishbot was created by Nicolas Carlesi, a French sailor and diver, and his company IADYS. Carlesi says he was inspired to create the bot after constantly seeing trash floating on water in various different ports. “I thought: ‘Why not try to make this difficult and sometimes thankless task of picking up trash easier?’ So we made this robot,” he said.
Estimates say that approx 150 million metric tons of plastics are circulating in our ocean and other marine environments, with an additional 8 million metric tons of plastics estimated to be entering our waterways each year. Carlesi hopes this bot will help make an impact on those numbers.
Currently, the Jellyfishbot is being used around 15 French ports, and according to its creators, the machine has also been exported to Singapore, Japan, and Norway. The company says it is planning to launch an autonomous version, which would be even more beneficial to port cleaners as it would require less human labor.
For more science news stories check out our New Innovations section at The Brighter Side of News.
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Tags: #New_Innovations, #Green_Good_News, #Ocean_Cleanup, #Environmental_Cleanup, #The_Brighter_Side_of_News
