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Although these boats are to be used for research it would be fascinating to make a similar ocean robot which specializes in herding ocean trash and collecting i
by NathanKP 15y ago
Although these boats are to be used for research it would be fascinating to make a similar ocean robot which specializes in herding ocean trash and collecting it for recycling.
Another article from the same site (http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678872/methods-plastic-madness-ocean-trash-to-detergent-bottles http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678872/methods-plastic-madness-o...) is about the ocean trash problem and a startup whose goal is to process low quality, sun brittled plastics such as those in the Pacific Ocean trash patch.
But the article makes the very valid point that gathering plastics from the ocean is a labor intensive effort. It would be cool to see a combination of autonomous robots such as these that could herd floating plastic trash and take it back to base stations for collection and recycling.
- rcthompson 15y agoI guess you would call such a trash-collecting robot WALL-C?
- epscylonb 15y agoIsn't the real danger from the ocean garbage patches that the rubbish breaks down to the point where you can't easily collect it up?.
- artmageddon 15y agoA lot of it is already at that point, but its costly for collecting by human-run ships. Robots can work tirelessly, provided they have power. In my mind, that changes the equation, assuming we can devise a robot that can do the job.