Alex Trelinski
THE world’s first beach–cleaning AI robot will be put through its paces on popular Valencia City beaches this summer.
The first tests were carried out by ‘PlatjaBot’ on Las Arenas beach on Thursday.
Valencia mayor, Maria Jose Catala, said: “We are the first Spanish city to have a law that allows technology to be tested in a real environment.”
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“The robot is the world’s first of its kind that works autonomously,” she added.
Catala stated that with Valencia being the first Green Capital of the Mediterranean, she wanted to take extra steps on cleaning the entire coastal area.
‘PlatjaBot’ will concentrate on removing cigarette butts, plastics and all kinds of waste from the sand
The robot is equipped with safety measures at its front to detect obstacles and people through AI artificial vision- even at night or in adverse weather.
It also has a built-in gyroscope and if there is any sudden judder or movement change like in the case of vandalism, the machine switches itself off.
Robot creator and MD of the UMIbots company, Clodo Gonzalez, said: “It can collect up to 10 centimetres of soil and screen all the waste found on the surface, which is then put in a rear tank that be dumped in containers.”
“This technology has the capacity to clean five square kilometres of beach with a single charge and can collect up to 330 units of waste per square kilometre.”
It can work with electric or solar energy with seven hours of stored power and it can be left without human control for 24 hours.
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Great idea, but it’s surely better for the community to hire humans to do the job?