This 12-Year-Old Built an Underwater Robot to Fight Plastic Pollution

Jan 06, 2019 Picture: Her project is called ‘Developing a Smart Infrared Based ROV to Identify Microplastics in Marine Environments’ – ROV stands for remotely operated vehicle. Inspired by a visit to the beach, where she was struck by the volume of plastic littering the sand, Du has developed an underwater vehicle fitted with an infrared camera that can detect plastic resting on the seabed. The problem of plastic pollution in the ocean is widely acknowledged and well documented. Yet solutions are still only starting to take shape. The remains of a sperm whale found in Indonesia in mid-November demonstrate the extent of the plastic pollution problem. (Read: Taiwan & Indonesia Singing the Blues for the Seas) Almost 6 kg of plastic waste was found in the animal’s stomach, including 115 cups. Plastic has even been found inside freshwater fish living in the Amazon basin. Fish ranging in size from 4cm to almost 30cm, including the parrot pacu, the redhook silver dollar, and the red-bellied piranha, were all found to have consumed plastics and polymers. Du decided to take part in the competition after seeing the extent of plastic litter at the beach, and how varied it was. “As I was collecting it, I couldn’t help but notice just how much plastics there were,” she says. Different types of plastic absorb and reflect light in their own unique way, depending on their composition. This is the basis of many automated plastic recycling facilities – light is shone onto the flow of plastic along a conveyor, sensors detect which light is reflected and can group the plastic waste according to type. The use of light to detect substance composition informed the choices Du made when developing her ROV. Its camera takes photos of the surface of the seabed and compares... If you wish to read this full breaking news headline, plus more articles from around Thailand and Asia like, This 12-Year-Old Built an Underwater Robot to Fight Plastic Pollution, simply click on
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