On a summer day in 2019, Raj Patel and his friend Sally Blake walked past a pool. It was filled with smelly algae (水藻), making it hard for workers to clean up. So the two 17-year-old students from Chicago decided to create a robot to deal with this problem. On Aug 19 , the 18th Science and Environment Invention Award was announced. Patel and Blake's invention of a water surface cleaning robot received the Gold Award.
It took them about four years to finish the robot. The robot moves like a boat and can be controlled from far away on the waterside. To collect garbage, the robot has two plates as "hands". Then a conveyor belt is used for sending the garbage to a basket. "There is also a heating sheet under the belt to help dry the garbage and make it easy to deal with," said Patel.
Compared to other robots of its kind, their robot is small, light and eco-friendly. "It has a solar panel (太阳能电池板) set on top," said Blake.
The journey to build their robot was full of difficulties. But they worked hard to deal with these problems. One challenge was the balance of the boat. "It used to be heavy and easy to turn over. On the advice of our teacher, we changed the top part from steel to alloy (合金) to make it lighter," said Patel.
As for their next step, they hope to make the robot work on its own. "We will continue to learn programming skills to make our dreams come true," said Blake.
