Beach Robot Cleans Up After Smokers

Did you know that cigarette butts are the most littered items on the planet? About 4.5 trillion of them are thrown into the environment every year.

Cigarette butts are full of chemicals that can kill fish, and they have been found in the stomachs of sea turtles, birds and other wildlife. But even though they're everywhere, they often aren't seen because they're so small.

Now, Dutch company TechTics plans to help fix the cigarette problem with its BeachBot. BeachBot, or BB, is a beach-cleaning robot that uses artificial intelligence to find cigarette butts — even if part of the butt is hidden in the sand.

BB has four wheels, two cameras and two arms to pick up cigarette butts. The butts are pulled into a bin inside the 80-centimeter-wide robot.

However, BB still needs help to understand the difference between things like a cigarette butt and a small seashell. So the most interesting part of the idea behind BB, said TechTic's co-founder Edwin Bos, is the way people can help make the robot smarter.

Using an app called Trove, anyone with a smartphone can send BB photos of cigarette butts to help the robot learn to recognize them.

During its first demo in September 2020, BB picked up 20 cigarette butts in 30 minutes. TechTics is also building two smaller robots to help BB by finding garbage and making maps for the larger robot to follow.

Bos said that for now, his company's robots will start with cigarette butts, but he wants them to pick up other types of litter in the future.

Questions

1. Who developed BeachBot?

2. How can people help improve BeachBot?

3. How many cigarette butts did BB pick up in 30 minutes during its first demo?

出处：见配图水印