Reducing plastic waste in waters thanks to robotics

The Autonomous River Cleanup (ARC) project aims to reduce plastic waste in water bodies worldwide using robotics and machine learning. Every year, several million tons of plastic waste from rivers end up in the oceans, contributing to global pollution. Also n Switzerland, more than 100 tons of plastic end up in water bodies every year. To counteract this problem, the ARC platform is being developed, the first prototype of which was tested on the river Limmat in 2021. Somaha Foundation is funding the further development of the robotic sorting unit and the river monitoring system, as well as the field deployment of the ARC technology.

The ARC platform is a system that collects independently and autonomously waste from water bodies, analyzes it and sorts it according to the specific material, leaving organic material in the water body. The ARC project thus contributes to the reduction and quantifiability of global plastic pollution and raises public awareness by publishing the generated data. ARC is designing its solutions in such a way that the project can be scaled up and deployed globally in the future.

The ARC project is a student initiative of the Robotic System Lab based at ETH Zurich. Funding is provided entirely by external partners. ETH supports the ARC project exclusively through in-kind contributions and access to its network. ETH Foundation supports the ARC project in the search for external partners.

Further information on the project can be found on the ARC website.