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Tag: data

The shark that collects waste and data

If you look carefully, staring at the water, you will see it: a shark with a huge open mouth. But no fish, plankton or unsuspecting swimmers disappear into this shark’s mouth: the WasteShark catches plastic and other waste. RanMarine’s promising prototype has developed into a mature water robot that cleans water worldwide. Creator Richard Hardiman: ‘I am an inventor, I enjoy turning ideas into actual solutions.’

The idea for the WasteShark originated in South Africa, where Hardiman comes from. ‘I saw two people fishing rubbish out of the water with a fishing net. I thought: surely there must be a different and better way of doing that? A product that can clean up waste without anyone being present. Around the same time, I became a father and developed an interest in sustainability. I wanted to do something good, also in terms of work. And that’s how the idea for the WasteShark was born. I have an engineering background so I started building. In 2016 I came into contact with the PortXL programme that allowed me to develop my idea as part of my newly established startup RanMarine.’

Water robot

Hardiman ended up at RDM Rotterdam, where he continued to develop his shark: ‘The WasteShark is a mini-water robot that floats and can navigate autonomously. It scours the surface of the water for plastic, waste and pollution and other things that do not belong in the water. The WasteShark collects it in its ‘open mouth’ and brings it to the shore. The smart shark can also pick up natural material that impacts water quality, such as duckweed, algae and aquatic plants. In addition, the WasteShark collects data on water quality. For example, it can monitor whether outboard water is suitable for swimming.’

Practical

How large and heavy is the shark? Hardiman lists the specifications: ‘The WasteShark is controlled via 4G, has a range of 3 kilometres, reaches a speed of 3 kilometres per hour and can swim for about 6 hours. The water robot is 1.57 metres long, 1.09 metres wide, 52 centimetres high and weighs 75 kilos. Very manageable in other words.’

Easy to use

There are several people and organisations whose models retrieve waste from the water. How is WasteShark different from other solutions? Hardiman: ‘It is simple, elegant and efficient. It is emission-free and does not result in any other pollution in the water, and it is easy to deploy. That was also our aim. We wanted to design a tool that collects as much waste as possible in a simple and manageable way, and can be used easily and by as many people as possible. If you have a fairly large car, you can even transport it in the boot. So it’s user-friendly for a wide audience.’

Millions of sharks

How does Hardiman see the future? ‘I am not against plastic, it is a convenient product. But we do have a huge mountain of plastic waste entering the environment. It’s all about how to recycle plastic even better. We can make great strides in that and the WasteShark can contribute. My dream is to have millions of WasteSharks active all over the world. Not only to collect waste, but also to collect data. We need to know what is in our water and not just what is floating on it. Using that data, we can learn how to improve and maintain the quality of the water!’

Springboard

What does Rotterdam mean to Hardiman? ‘My original idea was to return to Cape Town, but the Port of Rotterdam is a springboard to the world of robotics and engineering. And there’s a strong network of companies here committed to sustainability worldwide. This will allow us to improve the WasteShark even further and expand its distribution. I started out on my own and now we have grown into a company with 25 people, thanks to Rotterdam. I am glad I stayed, because without the Port of Rotterdam, RanMarine would not be here!’

Article and Video by Port of Rotterdam 

Why seaweed is a real ocean superstar

Article by Smiley News

Did you know seaweed plays a crucial role in marine ecosystems?

It’s one of the world’s great unsung heroes, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. The UK, with over 650 species of seaweed, is home to a diverse range of species.

That’s why, from 23-31 July, the Marine Conservation Society and the Natural History Museum will be asking people across the UK to head to the coast and spot seaweed as part of community science project: Big Seaweed Search Week.

The campaign asks beachgoers to search for, and record, 14 of the most common seaweed species. This information helps the organisations to map the distribution of specific species and collect long-term data that enables them to determine, as a result of seaweeds found, the impact of environmental changes in the ocean.

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Amy Pilsbury, Citizen Science Lead at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “Studying seaweeds can tell us a lot about wider ocean and environmental conditions and the information supports real scientific research.

“Seaweed is a real ocean superstar, helping to buffer the effects of climate change, absorbing and storing carbon and protecting our coasts from waves and storm damage. The more data we gather with our Big Seaweed Searchers, the more knowledge and influence we have to protect our ocean, and seaweeds, for the future.”

So, why is seaweed so vital?

As well as providing habitats for other species, seaweed plays a major part in marine food chains and are a rich source of nutrients for animals such as crabs and sea urchins.

Seaweed plays a critical role in combating the climate crisis. These fast-growing algae produce oxygen – more than land plants – with phytoplankton (like seaweed) providing at least half of the oxygen we breathe. Seaweed absorbs carbon more effectively than trees, storing an estimated 175 million tonnes each year – equal to 10% of the world’s car emissions.

However, populations of kelp – large brown seaweeds that are a vital ‘blue carbon’ store – are reported to be declining around the world, limiting ocean ecosystems’ abilities to absorb carbon and combat the climate crisis.

Data gathered by volunteers at the Big Seaweed Search helps build a picture of what our shores are like, how they’re changing and informs scientists and decision-makers how best to protect them.

It’s easy to get involved in Big Seaweed Search Week, and anyone can take part. Training videos and downloadable resources are available, including a guide which helps beachgoers to identify the seaweed species they’re likely to spot and explains what they need to do.

Inspired to act?

GET INVOLVED: To get involved simply, register to take part and download your guide and recording form at bigseaweedsearch.org.

You then need to choose your 5 metres of coastline to survey, fill in your survey form, take LOTS of clear, close-up photographs for your survey to be accepted – and submit it through bigseaweedsearch.org.

SUPPORT: You can visit the Marine Conservation Society to find out about volunteering opportunities.

Smart Cities’ Challenge: Bridging Data, In Real Time

“Smart cities” are a technology-driven approach to many previously irretractable urban problems, from alleviating congestion to improving pedestrian safety to enhancing water quality. While tier-1 cities such as San Francisco and Denver may come to mind as leaders in smart city technology deployment, look no further than Chattanooga, Tennessee. This picturesque city, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is an example of a smart city employing cutting-edge approaches to improve residents’ lives and mobility.

Kevin Comstock, smart city director for the City of Chattanooga, recently shared his experiences and insights on making the shift to smart in a panel joined by Richard Hardiman, CEO and founder of RanMarine, and William Muller, vice president of business development for Seoul Robotics. I had the opportunity to moderate the discussion.

Panelists are optimistic about the inroads smart cities will be making in transportation and civic life over the coming decade. Comstock sees smart cities paving the way for improved health, energy and mobility, “key areas smart cities can focus on and make tangible improvements over the next five to ten years.”

Data is the key, and is now available from a range of sources across cities. Muller says the key to smart city growth will be bringing this data together from different technologies and systems, “and making it useful as a whole big picture.” “Open” is the operative word, he adds. “Data is going to need to be accessible to many different parties, from connected vehicles, to transportation systems, to a person down the street looking at his cell phone.”

Chattanooga has been taking these steps, implementing a centralized hub that monitors real-time information on the health of its transportation network, as well as cameras that detect vehicles — both cars and bicycles — for better operation of traffic signals. The city has also been tying its databases together from sources across both the city and county to compile information about delays, congestion, construction, where parking or transit options are most available, and providing that information to the public in an open architecture format.
Comstock’s team has also been working with academia on a US Department of Transportation connected vehicle program test bed project which provides Chattanooga with one of the first connected vehicle projects in the country. The project is intended to provide connection between freight, transit and emergency vehicles, as well as monitor pollution and self-adjusting signals to compensate for increases in the pollution and other factors. “At the end of the day, businesses want to get their goods or deliver their goods,” says Comstock. “The more robust and smart the system, the more reliable sustainable system or delivery platform, the better off they’re going to be. The economic development piece of that becomes more in play at that point in time.”

Connected vehicles have caught the attention of many smart city planners, but the proliferation if autonomous vehicles is still some time away. “I don’t believe we’re in autonomous vehicles state yet, but we’ll definitely be there over the coming decade,” says Comstock. “We have to have connectivity before we have autonomy. The first generation of autonomous vehicles “are going to deliver pizza, groceries and packages before they ever deliver people,” Comstock cautions. “Until those platforms are discovered and vetted out, a certain safety protocol has been addressed.”

Autonomous vehicles currently have found their place in “very active in heavy industries, especially mining, and things like that, where the environments are more conducive to that technology,” says Muller. “The same technology developed for those industries, specifically the 3D data, 3D LIDAR sensors and 3D radars, are going to be beneficial for smart cities.”

Expect to see increased automation as well across the board, Hardiman says — a point demonstrated by the Covid crisis. “When we have a complete shutdown of the cities because of a pandemic, with the loss of taxes, we realize we need to rely on nonhuman functionality in many ways. Robotics is a potential cure-all to the next pandemic or the next event. We can survive better as a city, as a community, using robotics.”

The key to these efforts is data, and the ability to move it quickly to where it’s needed. “We have an organization within the city government that’s called the Office of Operational Management and Open Data,” Comstock explains. “We look at the resources that we have, the different data sets, different databases, and pull information into a centralized location.” One aspect is development of a LIDAR-based data system “to look at pedestrian safety as a key component of utilizing technology and help solve the problem.”

Another initiative Chattanooga is undertaking is “looking at a predictive crash model — taking and aggregating data from across the city in conjunction with the police department and others, to pull together a roadmap and this general understanding of what our pain points are, and how we can help mitigate some of those things before they become a problem. It’s about proactive thinking about these things, applying them in new ways.”

Even for the smallest-scale project, such as making an intersection or crossing smart, is the large number of components involved,” says Muller. “A lot of different technologies are needed to solve singular problems within a particular intersection.”

Along with open data, another challenge for smart cities is achieving interoperability between cities and government agencies at all levels, Comstock points out. “We recognize that the interoperability between a city like Chattanooga and state departments of transportation or the other agencies that surround us, like Atlanta or Nashville, that implementations performed here need to work in other locations, and people that come in from those locations need to work here,” says Comstock. “There needs to be an Internet of Things approach to how we look at technologies. For example, right now you can use a cell phone. It doesn’t matter who the manufacturer is, or who your carrier is. You can call anyone in the world at any point in time. The agnostic features of that need to be replicated in a smart cities environment.”

Read article on Forbes

WasteShark, the Swimming Drone, Devours Marine Trash

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, April 5, 2021 (ENS) – The Rotterdam-based startup RanMarine Technology has built a drone that swims rather than flies. The WasteShark traverses waterways to collect litter, biomass, plastics, microplastic and other debris using a basket underneath the autonomous device. In addition to removing litter, sensors in the drone enable data collection on water conditions: temperature, pH levels, depth, green algae, or oily hydrocarbons.

Modeled on the planet’s largest fish, the whale shark, the WasteShark is the world’s first waste-harvesting autonomous aqua-drone that collects marine waste, biomass, and plastic from all types of water. It can collect up to 500 kilograms of waste a day with a zero carbon footprint.

To date, RanMarine has introduced WasteSharks to help clean up harbors in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, India, Thailand, Denmark, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia.

The WasteShark uses radar to avoid collisions and GPS and autonomous software to follow pathways while collecting waste and data. The device can travel through waters for up to 10 hours without a recharge.

RanMarine Technology and The Planet Calls, an Irish NGO foundation focused on sustainability and a circular economy, have just announced their new strategic partnership. Combining RanMarine’s award-winning technology for cleaning the world’s waters and The Planets Calls’ mission for a greener and more sustainable planet, it’s a partnership with a vision – clean plastic pollution.

In some form, almost all the plastic ever created still exists today. The amount of plastic produced globally in a year is almost the same as the entire weight of humanity, the two organizations warn. They take seriously the prediction that by 2050, there will be more tonnes of plastic in our oceans than tonnes of fish.

This estimate comes from a report by British sailor and environmentalist Ellen MacArthur introduced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2016. “In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight),” the report read.

There is no doubt that the call to act is urgent.

RanMarine Technology CEO Richard Hardiman says, “As a cleantech company, we are regularly introduced to people and networks who are passionate about the earth, its waters, and the need for urgent restoration. I can honestly say that few embody the same passion and vision or align with our mission so clearly as The Planet Calls. To be partnered with CEO Leslie Maliepaard and her team, to us at RanMarine, is the embodiment of what we are looking to achieve in creating stronger networks and commitments in the fight against plastic pollution.”

In this fight against plastic pollution, RanMarine’s WasteShark drone offers an intelligent tool for cleaning water in parks, lakes, lagoons, marinas, rivers, canals, harbors and smart cities, where the eco-friendly, quiet drone can devour plastic pollution before it spills into the ocean.

Article by Environment News Service