Page 36: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2024)

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or the developers of Clearbot, the inspiration collected, and in-house AI modelling classi? es the trash for to be involved in removing trash from water- analysis by local authorities.

ways arose from personal experience. They had Clearbot has also partnered with Lloyd’s Register to help watched villagers in India catching ? sh in rivers meet the national and international standards that will facili- carpeted with trash and surfers in Bali manually tate their boats’ entry into more countries and more markets.

Fhauling in trash from otherwise beautiful beaches. Sriram highlights the versatility of the collection system

Samyuktha Sriram, Head of Business Development and which can also clear aquatic pests such as water hyacinth. The

Marketing, recounts how, with no common language between small autonomous vessels can be useful in other hazardous them, the Clearbot team was able to teach an Indian villager environments too. They have been used to survey the dark, how to use its boat’s remote control to clear around 80kg of narrow waters under a bridge that was under construction. trash an hour. “We designed the system to be as intuitive as The addition of water quality sensors and samplers offers possible. Operating the boat is almost as simple as using a more functionality as does bathymetric survey equipment or remote-controlled device, but with far greater impact.” even storage space for marina deliveries. As multi-functional

As for the surfers earning a living doing the arduous and units, the boats are modular and can be converted from one dangerous work of manual cleanup of beaches, she says: “We operation to another in less than an hour.

don't want to put people out of jobs. We want to build a very Michael Arens, co-founder of Clean Earth Rovers in the usable solution that anyone can learn, so that they can con- US, adds the cleanup of dead ? sh to his vessel’s extensive tinue to do the work that they do, just at a larger scale.” versatility. Red tides in Florida, for example, have causes

The company was started by university students Sidhant mass deaths that pose a health hazard to those involved in

Gupta and Utkarsh Goel in 2019, and the partners built their manual cleanup. With a series of attachments, the company’s ? rst prototype in the hotel they were staying at in Bali and rovers can collect dead ? sh, spray herbicides or clean up oil. tested it in a swimming pool. Now they have of? ces in Hong A simple two-prong automotive plug is used for the various

Kong, India and Thailand. attachments which plug into the vessel’s charging port.

Development has continued, and they have added a larger For Arens, the motivation for developing the technology is model capable of handling 200kg of trash an hour and stor- to be part of the community and environmental stewardship ing 1.5 tons onboard. They have also installed solar panels that is fostered around marinas. “We like to work with groups, so the vessels are self-charging, and they have bolstered ves- both in the private and public sector, to help leave behind a sel autonomy with the development of in-house object avoid- legacy of sustainability.” ance software. Onboard cameras provide a record of the trash For RanMarine founder Richard Hardiman, the inspiration 36 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2024

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