One of the most exciting exhibits at Auto Expo 2023 belongs to Clearbot, a young startup that builds self-driving, electric boats which use artificial intelligence to navigate and conduct tasks in the water. These robot boats are solar chargeable, emission-free and safer than sending humans into the water to conduct marine work – currently used to collect floating trash and hyacinth out of water bodies which is a massive problem in every part of our country.
The Ganga river, arguably one of the most revered and important rivers in the world, recently had a Clearbot system pilot where the machine was used to remove trash along the ghats of Varanasi. In Kerala as well, the Clearbot team has started tackling the hyacinth problem with a specially designed boat for this purpose.
The startup was inspired during a trip to Bali where the founders witnessed how local workers would take to the water every day in small boats to manually fish trash out of the sea. They quickly realized that this was a massive problem in most parts of the world as water pollution is rampant and scalable solutions are hard to come by. Cleabotʼs founders spent 2 years developing its patented technology which allows for the boat to be 100% self-driving and free of any pilot.
Their solution provides value by removing manpower requirements, cutting emissions and fuel cost all while generating higher data and transparency. Using its self-driving capabilities, Clearbots can perform round-the-clock cleaning and monitoring without needing extensive people power, allowing the company to scale impact in vulnerable communities even with limited resources.
It also uses artificial intelligence to generate valuable data within minutes – locations visited, trash collected, and other custom information. With a wealth of information, Clearbot and their partners — companies, governments, non-government organizations and individuals – can track the origins of marine waste and then tackle pollution at the source to prevent leakages from happening.
Last year, the startup has scaled to more than 10 bots globally and have successfully expanded to India to clean up local rivers and waterways. They are also doing automated scanning, surveillance and goods delivery services with their machines.
Clearbot is currently leveraging the support of CSR sponsors to help clean up the Ganga river in India and are looking to expand their partnerships to be able to cover more cities and water bodies. The startup hopes that if they are successful, they will help make environmental management smarter, safer and more sustainable.