After approximately three years of development, a University of Cincinnati Venture Lab-backed startup that seeks to collect plastic debris from waterways will launch this summer, WLWT reported.
Clean Earth Rovers' first autonomous rover is set to launch this summer at a marina near San Francisco.
"The intent is to really provide the marina owners an alternative to every time you need to do something, you have to send out a human," Robert Charvat of Clean Earth Rovers said. "Go to your phone. Log on to the app. Identify in your marina where it is. It has a lidar unit on it so it won't crash into things. It's got an eight-hour battery."
Along with a rover that picks up debris, Clean Earth Rovers has developed data sensors that collect information on water quality such as oxygen levels, water temperature and pollution content.
"It also includes all of the pollutants that you can't see," Clean Earth Rovers' Chris Petersen said. "Whether that's bacteria levels in the water or phosphates or nitrogen. Things that cause algae blooms and fish die-offs, which are becoming a much bigger problem for different municipalities and marinas around the country."
Featured image: Clean Earth Rovers' Plastics Piranha. Screenshot courtesy of WLWT video.
