Scientists in Norway have created an underwater robot that can identify(识别) different kinds of pollution at the bottom of the sea.The robot will help clean—up teams identify the places where there is rubbish and focus their time and money on removing the most harmful materials.
The robot, which weighs 45 kilograms and uses special cameras to capture(捕捉)3 D pictures, was created by a team at Skarv Technologies.Another Norwegian company, Ecotone, developed a specirometer(分光计)——a machine that can work out what material an object is made of even in dirty water.
The researchers put their work to the test at a bay(海湾) in the city of Bergen, on Norway's southwest coast.First, the robot swam up and down in rows two meters above the seabed, collecting data.Then a computer was used to turn the data into a map, which shows different rubbish materials in different colors.
A total of 3, 894 objects were identified in the bay and sorted into categories, including bottles, metal and plastics.They estimated that there's somewhere around 150 to 300 tonnes of trash in the bay.It is not always possible to remove everything, and some things are more important to clear from the sea.The maps will be used to help the teams who clean up the seabed locate the most harmful materials so that they can remove them first."Glass isn't really polluting, "says Trygve Olav Fossum, part of the Skarv Technologics team.
As well as helping to deal with pollution, the robot can also show where creatures like starfish are on the seabed.The team will return in November to map another bay in Bergen.