Tag: Environment

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Robots in Hawai’i – Part 3

Surveying and collecting rare plant species that grow on steep cliffs has been a risky business for scientists and conservationists for centuries. The world’s first aerial sampling system, which uses a robotic arm suspended from a drone, is attempting to solve this problem in Hawai’i. An article published by Mongabay magazine back in November 2022 states: “In Hawai’i’s Kaua’i island, the world’s first aerial sampling system has successfully flown into high-altitude cliff faces to cut out samples from rare plants and bring them back to a nursery. Scientists call it ‘the Mamba,’ a cutting mechanism on a remote-controlled robotic arm suspended from a drone. The system was developed by Hawai’i-based not-for-profit conservation organization National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) and Quebec-based technology company Outreach Robotics and the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec.” (Mongabay, 9. November 2023) Ben Nyberg, the NTBG’s geographic information system and drone program coordinator, told Mongabay in an interview: “It is really unlocking a lot of areas that have previously been completely inaccessible.” (Mongabay, 9. November 2023) Of course, criminals could also adopt the technology. But it would be almost impossible to smuggle rare plants out of Hawai’i due to strict customs controls.

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Plastic Waste in the Pacific Comes from the Fishing Industry

The Ocean Cleanup project has analyzed the plastic waste it has fished out of the sea. The results were published in a paper. From the abstract: “The subtropical oceanic gyre in the North Pacific Ocean is currently covered with tens of thousands of tonnes of floating plastic debris, dispersed over millions of square kilometres. A large fraction is composed of fishing nets and ropes while the rest is mostly composed of hard plastic objects and fragments, sometimes carrying evidence on their origin. In 2019, an oceanographic mission conducted in the area, retrieved over 6000 hard plastic debris items > 5 cm. The debris was later sorted, counted, weighed, and analysed for evidence of origin and age. Our results, complemented with numerical model simulations and findings from a previous oceanographic mission, revealed that a majority of the floating material stems from fishing activities. While recent assessments for plastic inputs into the ocean point to coastal developing economies and rivers as major contributors into oceanic plastic pollution, here we show that most floating plastics in the North Pacific subtropical gyre can be traced back to five industrialised fishing nations, highlighting the important role the fishing industry plays in the solution to this global issue.” (Abstract) In a final thesis at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW in 2019, a student described and evaluated six projects for the disposal of plastic waste in seas. An overview can be found here. The Ocean Cleanup was also discussed, beside the WasteShark that sticks out as a robot.

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The Ocean Cleanup’s First Results

As Golem reported on 13 December 2019, The Ocean Cleanup project has landed 60 large bags of plastic waste. The plastic waste comes from the Pacific, where several areas are heavily affected. In October, the project managers announced that the 001/B system was working as planned. System 001 had to be reworked because the plastic collected in it but then spilled out again. Now garbage of all sizes was found, from huge nets to household garbage such as car tires or plastic bottles to microplastic. The plastic is now to be recycled – so founder Boyant Slant is quoted by Golem. The goal is to create sustainable products. In a final thesis at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland a student recently described and evaluated six projects for the disposal of plastic waste in seas. An overview can be found here. The Ocean Cleanup was also discussed, beside the WasteShark that sticks out as a robot.

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The Interceptor in the Cengkareng Drain

Plastic in rivers and seas is one of the biggest problems of our time. Whether bottles or bags, whether macro or micro plastic – the flora and fauna is impaired and destroyed. Six projects against plastic waste have already been presented here. The focus was on the seas. One of the initiatives is now also active in the rivers. This is very important because what is fished out in the rivers no longer ends up in the oceans. The magazine Fast Company reported on 26 October 2019: “In the Cengkareng Drain, a river that runs through the megacity of Jakarta, Indonesia, tons of plastic trash flows to the ocean each year. But now a new solar-powered robot called the Interceptor is gobbling up the waste so that it can be recycled instead. The system was designed by the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup, which spent the past four years secretly developing and testing the technology while it continued to work on its main project – a device that can capture plastic trash once it’s already in the ocean.” (Fast Company, 26 October 2019) This is good news. However, the most important thing is to avoid plastic waste. Otherwise, the destruction of the waters will continue unstoppably.