Related papers: A novel autonomous microplastics surveying robot f…
This communication describes a preliminary research on detection of big masses of plastic (marine litter) on the oceans and seas using EO (Earth Observation) satellite systems. Free images from the Sentinel 2 (Copernicus Project) platform…
Implementing fully automatic unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) monitoring water quality is challenging since effectively collecting environmental data while keeping the platform stable and environmental-friendly is hard to approach. To…
Microplastics are increasingly recognized as a global environmental health threat, yet their detection and characterization remain constrained by the cost, form factor, and throughput of existing analytical tools. Portable…
In today's chemical plants, human field operators perform frequent integrity checks to guarantee high safety standards, and thus are possibly the first to encounter dangerous operating conditions. To alleviate their task, we present a…
This paper proposes an intelligent system concept for automatic monitoring of aquatic en-vironment main parameters in order to detect their anomalies and assess quantitative and qualitative indicators, including the determination of the…
Marine plastic debris is widely recognized as a global environmental issue. Sun-micron plastic particles, with an upper size limit of 20 um, have been identified as having the highest potential for causing damage to marine ecosystems.…
Plastic pollution in the aquatic environment has been assessed for many years by ocean waste collection expeditions around the globe or by river sampling. While the total amount of plastic produced worldwide is well documented, the amount…
The quantification of positively buoyant marine plastic debris is critical to understanding how plastic litter accumulates across the world's oceans and is also crucial to identifying hotspots for targeted cleanup efforts. Currently, the…
Field studies have shown that plastic fragments make up the majority of plastic pollution in the oceans in terms of abundance. How quickly environmental plastics fragment is not well understood, however. Here, we study this fragmentation…
Microplastics are pervasive pollutants that pose threats to the environment and human health. Detecting them reliably represents a crucial step toward finding solutions. While traditional techniques like vibrational and mass spectroscopies…
Marine microalgae are widespread in the ocean and play a crucial role in the ecosystem. Automatic identification and location of marine microalgae in microscopy images would help establish marine ecological environment monitoring and water…
Currently the extent of nanoplastic in the environment can only be estimated by extrapolation from the plastic waste that can be detected. To be able to quantify the whole extent of the problem, detection methods have to be developed that…
True microrobots, in contrast with externally controlled microparticles, must harvest or carry their own source of energy, as well as their own (preferably programmable) microcontroller of actuators for locomotion, using information…
Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by their motion and the geometry of nearby boundaries. Fish and underwater robots can use these patterns for navigation. This paper extends this…
The size distribution of marine microplastics provides a fundamental data source for understanding the dispersal, break down, and biotic impacts of the microplastics in the ocean. The observed size distribution at the sea surface generally…
Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in all ecosystems, affecting wildlife and, ultimately, human health. The complexity of natural samples plus the unspecificity of their treatments to isolate polymers renders the characterization of…
There are 50 billion pieces of litter in the U.S. alone. Grass fields contribute to this problem because picnickers tend to leave trash on the field. We propose building a robot that can autonomously navigate, identify, and pick up trash in…
Autonomous robots can transform how we observe marine ecosystems, but close-range operation in reefs and other cluttered habitats remains difficult. Vehicles must maneuver safely near animals and fragile structures while coping with…
The accumulation of litter is increasing in many places and is consequently becoming a problem that must be dealt with. In this paper, we present a manipulator robotic system to collect litter in outdoor environments. This system has three…
Autonomy for robots interacting with sand will enable a wide range of beneficial behaviors, from earth moving for construction and farming vehicles to navigating rough terrain for Mars rovers. The goal of this work is to shape sand into…