Meet the WasteShark, an autonomous aqua drone that will remove floating garbage, plastic waste, and bio-waste from the water surface. It was invented by the Netherlands-based firm ‘RanMarine’ which wants to protect our ocean and other natural water bodies with drone technology.
However, the design of this autonomous surface vessel (ASV) was inspired by the whale shark. As a result, this garbage collector robot drone swallows all the floating biomass and plastic waste from the water surface. Unlike other waste collecting vessels, the WasteShark is small enough to enter small waterways and navigate through tight spaces.
On the other hand, it is big enough to carry 400 kg (882lbs) in its 160 liters of storage capacity. Moreover, the WasteShark measures 157x52x109 cm and weighs only 72 kg that making it easy to transport from one waterbody to another. Likewise, this device is ideal to clean any kind of water body such as ports, harbors, canals, marinas, lakes, reservoirs, and even slow-moving rivers.
What is the WasteShark?
Above all, this cleaning device uses rechargeable batteries to get the power. And it can last up to 8 hours on a single charge which is enough to collect toxic wastes from any waterbody all day. You can operate the robot manually by remote control and can also work autonomously.
For autonomous operation, it uses 4G data and GPS to navigate. Also, it features a LiDar sensor to scan its surroundings and avoid any collusion and damage. That is to say, in manual mode, the operation range is limited by a 3km range but in autonomous mode, it literally has no limits.
However, the 2x electric thrusters propel the WasteShark with a maximum speed of 3 km/h. According to RanMarine’s website, WasteShark will available for lease and sale. Further, the cost of an autonomous aqua drone starts from $35,981 and you can get it for a lease that costs you around $2,681 per month.Â
Source: RanMarine
