Researchers from Italy, France, and Spain have developed an ultra-intelligent robot to help clean up plastic hiding beneath the surface in Venice's iconic canals, and the technology could eventually have a global impact.
As Euronews reported, Venice's world-famous canals are facing a growing crisis as more and more plastic waste enters the city's waterways from the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. But Maelstrom — a robotic seabed-cleaning platform developed by an international team of engineers and computer scientists — could help remove a large amount of plastic and restore the canals to their former glory.
The Maelstrom project was created as part of Horizon 2020, a European Union-funded research and innovation program. Using the power of advanced technology, the team wanted to develop a sustainable, cost-effective solution to eliminate plastics from the environment without disturbing marine animals and ecosystems.
To accomplish this, the underwater cable robot is equipped with artificial intelligence-guided sensors, a smart camera to identify plastics, a suction tube to collect smaller waste, and a grapple for larger objects — such as tires, abandoned boat parts, and fishing nets.
Maelstrom is connected to a floating platform via cables and winches to ensure it's accurately controlled. It is designed to operate up to a depth of 20 meters (65 feet) without damaging the seafloor.
After obtaining a patent for the robot in 2022, the team tested it near the island of Giudecca and Cavallino Treporti — both heavily impacted by marine litter — with impressive results. According to the European Commission, Maelstrom collected nearly 5,000 pounds of plastic trash during the cleaning campaigns, showing promise for larger-scale cleanups in the future.
Maelstrom's assortment of cutting-edge technologies also includes a Bubble Barrier used in Portugal's Ave River to catch plastic before it reaches the ocean, an AI-sorting robot to separate the waste, and a marine litter tracking app, which organizes information on the collected trash. At the final stage of the process, the plastic waste is sent to a recycling center, ensuring it is repurposed into valuable products and materials.
Since plastic pollution is one of the key issues impacting people's health, animals, and the environment, solutions such as Maelstrom play a crucial role in helping us progress toward a cleaner future.
When the project ended last November, international partners and stakeholders discussed how the technologies "could be expanded and applied globally beyond the project's conclusion," signaling hope for other waterways plagued by plastics.
"It is very important to have this kind of technology, not only here in Venice but in coastal areas and port cities in general," Dr. Fantina Madricardo, the Maelstrom project's coordinator, told Euronews. "A lot of waste is abandoned or lost near cities and ports – it's difficult to see and even harder to recover. If it is hazardous, sending divers down can be dangerous. A robot can make the process faster and safer."
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