Plastic Waste is Exponentially Filling our Oceans, but where are the Robots?

TL;DR

This paper highlights the urgent need for robotic solutions to address the rapidly increasing plastic waste in oceans, emphasizing the current lack of research and the potential for robotics to mitigate this environmental crisis.

Contribution

It provides an overview of the plastic waste problem, reviews existing robotic efforts, and calls for increased research and development in oceanic plastic waste management.

Findings

Limited current robotics research on plastic waste removal

Potential for robotics to significantly impact ocean cleanup

Urgent need for community efforts to develop robotic solutions

Abstract

Plastic waste is filling our oceans at an exponential rate. The situation is catastrophic and has now garnered worldwide attention. Despite the catastrophic conditions, little to no robotics research is conducted in the identification, collection, sorting, and removal of plastic waste from oceans and rivers and at the macro- and micro-scale. Only a scarce amount of individual efforts can be found from private sources. This paper presents a cursory view of the current plastic water waste catastrophe, associated robot research, and other efforts currently underway to address the issue. As well as the call that as a community, we must wait no longer to address the problem. Surely there is much potential for robots to help meet the challenges posed by the enormity of this problem.