This Earth Day, the scale of the solution to ocean pollution looks more manageable as entrepreneurs leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous tech tools to clean our waters more efficiently than ever before.
Over 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans each year, threatening wildlife, marine ecosystems, human health and economies across the globe. As international efforts to address this issue continue, a powerful new ally in the fight has emerged: AI. By combining AI with cutting-edge robotics and data analytics, scientists and engineers are revolutionizing how we detect, track and remove pollution from our seas.
The first challenge to cleaning up our oceans is finding where the trash and debris are located. With the ocean covering over 70% of the planet, the currents constantly moving everything around and the difficulty in distinguishing between trash and natural materials such as algae or sea foam, this task can be extremely difficult and daunting. This is where AI, paired with satellite and drone technology, is proving useful.
AI algorithms can scan vast amounts of aerial footage and satellite imagery to “identify large aggregations of plastic, guiding cleanup efforts and monitoring pollution hotspots.” Once trained and continually refined, the predictive capabilities of AI can be leveraged to forecast what areas have a higher likelihood of plastic accumulation, “based on factors such as ocean currents, wind patterns, and river discharge.”
Once plastic and debris patches are identified, the next step is ensuring efficient removal. AI is helping to transform this phase of the process from an educated guessing game into a calculated and more precise operation.
The Ocean Cleanup, which is “developing and scaling technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic,” is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make the location and removal processes more efficient and effective. AWS is providing the underlying AI, machine learning and cloud computing technology to help bolster the nonprofit’s efforts. The collaboration includes AWS teaching its AI models how to spot plastic in the ocean, using them to predict debris movement and find the most impacted areas to assist cleanup crews with accurate removal, while “protecting marine ecosystems by using AI to help keep ocean life safe during cleanup efforts.”
Furthermore, The Ocean Cleanup integrates an AI-driven routing algorithm to optimize the path of plastic-collecting ships. A recent study published in the INFORMS Journal Operations Research found this integration improves plastic collection efficiency by 68% when compared to other, more traditional methods. This system not only removes more waste in less time, but it does so while reducing operational costs, making the entire process more sustainable.
Beyond guiding large cleanup systems, AI is also powering autonomous vessels on the water’s surface, like ClearBot, developed by Clear Robotics. These vessels patrol lakes, rivers and harbors, using on-board cameras and AI computer vision to spot and collect floating debris, acting as a first line of defense before plastic reaches the open ocean.
While AI is not a magic solution that will solve pollution in our oceans overnight, it is a powerful force multiplier that is making ocean cleanup faster, smarter and more scalable than ever before. By assisting with detection and smart removal, AI is providing the tools we need to turn the tide on ocean pollution and work towards a cleaner, healthier Earth for future generations.
Image via Unsplash.