Microsoft-Backed AI Robotic Boat Cleans Up Harbors And Rivers

Open Ocean Engineering, an emerging technology firm out of Hong Kong, has come up with a solution to the millions of tons of plastic waste that makes its way to the Earth’s water bodies each year. 

Dubbed the ‘Clearbot Neo’, the AI-enabled robotic boat roams the city’s harbor collecting floating trash that would otherwise carry into the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the United Nations estimated that 95% of plastic pollution in seas filters through 10 major rivers, eight of which are situated in Asia. 

Even more alarming, Microsoft pointed out that the volume of plastic encroaching on marine environments could triple by 2040, with more than 23 to 37 million metric tons of garbage finding its way into the oceans annually. 

As such, the technology giant offered Open Ocean Engineering a grant so Clearbot Neo can set sail. Measuring just three meters long (10 feet long), the boat’s electric motor is powered by a renewable solar battery, and systematically moves along designated sections of the water to collect waste. 

Likening it to a robotic vacuum cleaner you may find at home, the compact device was specifically designed to trawl harbors, canals, and rivers, in which the much larger trash collectors may not fit. 

Interestingly, the boat makes use of artificial intelligence to recognize and record the type of trash it collects, first skimming the surface of the water and then scooping up any bits of plastic onto its conveyer belt located near its bow. 

Plus, in order to avoid disturbing the fish, the device’s dual-camera system ensures one camera is trained on the water’s surface so it won’t bump into marine life, or other boats zipping across the river. 

The second camera is used to photograph each piece of waste collected, before the image and precise GPS location is conveyed to the company’s data compliance system, which runs on Microsoft’s Azure platform. 

Founders Gupta and Utkarsh Goel came up with the idea for Clearbot Neo when on a trip to Bali, after witnessing how locals would manually fish out plastic trash from the sea each day. They then created several prototypes before landing on the current model.

By collecting the data of the waste, the firm can find out the more pressing problem—how trash ends up in the waters in the first place. 

“It adds a lot of transparency to the process of marine clean-up. We generate data about what’s actually in the water, what’s the make-up of the stuff that’s there, how much of it is recyclable, and what materials we should be focusing on,” Gupta explained. 

Hopefully, with the new partnership in place, Clearbot Neo will be able to reach harbors and rivers all over the world to start the great ocean clean-up the world so desperately needs. 

[via Microsoft]