Fish-like robots can become the friendly neighbors of our waters

Euronews.green writes that the company's creation, called WasteShark, can "swallow" as many as 21.000 bottles in a single day, an appetite which we can definitely make use of.

Richard Hardiman, founder of Ran Marine, said that "I liken it to a Roomba for water. It's an autonomous machine that scoops up pollution out of water on the surface level. That pollution could be plastic or any debris or biomass like algae."

Recently, the WasteShark was set free in London's River Thames, specifically in an area called the Canary Wharf. As it is transited by some 120.000 people daily, plastic waste can become an issue in the district.

Last year, we wrote about a team of researchers at Sichuan University in southwest China that  developed its own plastic-eating robot fish, which can be controlled manually, as well.

"The way we designed the WasteShark was that it was zero impact on the environment that it's working in", Richard explains.

The robot, unlike real sharks, doesn't harm the ecosystems it is deployed in, thanks to its silent electric propulsion system.

"Ducks and swans swim away from it. We're not fast enough to catch fish. So it really is a low-impact solution to remove pollution out of the water", the CEO added.

The battery-powered machine can travel for as much as 5km on a single battery and it can clean rivers for 8 to 10 hours in a day. Also, it's important to mention that it's garbage-ingesting capacity is about 500kg, which is the equivalent to 21.000 plastic bottles.

Another important thing is that the robot doesn't only collect waste, but also water sample, so that scientists can assess if its quality improves or not over time.

Photo source: Ran Marine