It’s fairly well known that two-thirds of our planet is covered by oceans and seas. But what isn’t so well known is that those sea floors are covered by millions upon millions of metric tons of litter from humans. Between 1950 and 2020, 32 million metric tons of plastic trash alone has made its way into Earth’s oceans, according to one estimate. If nothing is done, that should reach 76 million tons by 2040. Researchers and students in Europe are seeking to put a dent in those massive numbers. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany has developed what it calls the Smart Grapple. It's an AI-led robotic machine that is dropped into the water and can scoop up litter along sea floors. Its AI camera system can identify what is trash and what isn’t. To do so, it's been trained on more than 7,500 images. The Smart Grapple can haul items up to 550 pounds. It uses four arms and pronged hands that resemble those claw-like games in arcades that scoop up small toys and stuffed animals. “It’s not the solution to all our problems with marine litter,” Stefan Sosnowski told CNN. He leads the research team at TUM. Sosnowski said that we can’t keep littering our oceans and rely on robots to scoop it out. But the robot can be used strategically in preservation areas and harbors, he told CNN. He noted that human divers currently are the only way to collect such litter. The Smart Grapple is part of SeaClear 2.0. It's an effort by more than a dozen organizations to clean up Earth’s seas. SeaClear’s fleet of robots could be ready as soon as 2030. Thought Question: What is one small thing you wish you could invent or do to help take better care of the world around you? Gif of trash floating in the ocean from Giphy.
