Have you ever looked out onto a lake, river or harbor and been shocked by the amount of trash and debris floating around? A startup called Clear Robotics is tackling this environmental problem in an innovative way: autonomous robotic boats.
Clear Robotics was founded by two college graduates who wanted to automate the labor-intensive task of cleaning up floating trash in waterways. Their solution is the Clearbot, a robotic ship that uses an open bow to cruise harbors, lakes, and canals, collecting floating trash into an onboard storage bin.
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Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
Clear Robotics is expanding its fleet
clear Robotics is expanding its fleet with the introduction of a new Class 3 autonomous marine vessel. This large robotic boat can accommodate five times more collected trash and debris with 1.5 tonnes of onboard storage capacity, and can tow additional barges, allowing it to extend cleanup operations without reducing the frequency of returns to port.
The new Class 3 vessels are designed to be used not only to collect floating waste, but also to control invasive weeds, another aquatic pest. Their enhanced capabilities make them an even more powerful tool for keeping local waters clean and healthy. They can also be used for water quality monitoring and to collect oil and foam.
Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
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Increased capacity for new ships
The new vessel is designed to collect up to 441 pounds of floating trash per hour, with an on-board storage capacity of 1,100 pounds. It can be equipped with a towing vessel, which will increase the loading capacity to 1.5 tons per voyage, as mentioned above.
The electric drive gives them an average speed of 3.5 miles per hour, and the 3 kWh battery pack will run for up to eight hours on a single charge. Clear Robotics has installed solar panels on top that will allow them to run for a few more hours under ideal conditions. The company also reports that it has introduced a self-docking mechanism across its fleet, allowing the ships to automatically return to docking stations equipped with solar charging units to recharge.
Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
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Cutting-edge technology for cleaning and plant removal
The 13.25 x 7.5 x 5.5-foot Class 3 Clearbot is fully autonomous with a 1080p camera, LiDAR, and optional collision avoidance. It has a conveyor at the front to collect floating debris, but also specialized cutters to remove invasive plants and weeds like water hyacinth and duckweed.
On trash collection missions, the vessel can reportedly cover up to 107,600 square feet per day, although the area covered is reduced when cutting or removing weeds.
Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
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Main Autonomous Features of Class 3 Clearbot
Key features of Clear Robotics’ new Class 3 autonomous marine vessel, the Clearbot, include:
Autonomous Waypoint Mission Path: Clearbot allows you to specify a set of GPS waypoints (i.e., a set of latitude/longitude pairs) and have the robot autonomously navigate from its current location to each defined waypoint to collect trash.
Safe Home: Clearbot will return to the home point if the signal is lost while connected to a remote controller or Wi-Fi. The RTH function ensures safe marine operation even in large water areas.
Anti-collision software: Anti-collision detection stops the Clearbot’s movement and slightly reverses its motion if it detects anything within a 45-foot radius around the boat when cleaning debris or oil from the marine environment.
AI-powered dashboard: The dashboard helps Clearbot users monitor emerging trends emerging from their data, track operations, and make informed decisions based on rigorous analysis.
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Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
Clearbot’s new trash cleanup partnership
Clearbot has partnered with Kingspan Group, a global leader in high-performance insulation and building envelope solutions, to launch a sustainable cleanup of Nongba River in Nongstoin city, India, demonstrating the real-world application and adoption of the company’s autonomous waste collection technology.
Clearbot (Clear Robotics) (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
Important points about the cart
The rise of autonomous robotic solutions like Clearbot represents a major step forward in tackling the massive problem of ocean and waterway pollution. By utilizing cutting-edge technologies like AI, machine vision, and self-driving capabilities, these systems can operate continuously with minimal human intervention to remove floating trash, oil slicks, and invasive vegetation over vast areas. As the technology matures and costs fall, fleets of these trash-collecting robots could patrol rivers, ports, and coastlines around the world, significantly reducing the millions of tons of waste that enter our waterways every year.
Have you seen the effects of plastic pollution and floating trash in your local waterways? What innovative solutions would you like to see implemented to tackle this environmental problem? Cyberguy.com/Contact Us.
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