AI solution to cleaning up harbours

Hong Kong - Millions of tons of plastic trash float down polluted urban rivers and industrial waterways and into the world’s oceans every year.

Now a Hong Kong-based startup has come up with a solution to help stem these devastating flows of waste.

Open Ocean Engineering has developed Clearbot Neo,  a sleek AI-enabled robotic boat which autonomously collects tonnes of floating garbage that otherwise would wash into the Pacific ocean from the territory’s busy harbour.

The company is planning to have fleets of Clearbot Neos cleaning up and protecting waters around the globe. The Clearbot would be great for cleaning up New Zealand’s harbours.

The United Nations estimates that as much as 95 percent of plastic pollution in the world’s seas gets there via 10 major rivers, eight of which are in Asia.

And there are fears that the volume of plastic trash flowing into marine environments could nearly triple by 2040, adding 23 to 37 million metric tonnes into the oceans per year. That would be equivalent to about 50 kgs of plastic garbage per meter of coastline worldwide.

If countries we clean up their our rivers and harbours, they are helping to clean up the oceans. At just three metres long and pushed along by a solar battery-powered electric motor, the Clearbot Neo systematically moves up and down designated sections of water much like how a household robot cleaner moves across a living room floor.

Unlike other and much larger marine trash collection solutions that are tackling pollution on the high seas, the compact nature of the Clearbot Neo makes it ideal for harbour, canal and river use.

It skims the surface and scoops up floating trash onto an on-board conveyer belt fitted near its bow between its dual hulls and into a holding bin near its stern.

It can bring in as much as a metric tonne of refuse per day for recycling or disposal. When fitted with a bespoke boom, it can tackle localised oil and fuel spills by collecting up to 15 litres of pollutant a day. It also collects masses of data in the cloud using a two-camera detection system.