Ecoferroquatics: Aquatic Plastic Clean Up With Ferrofluid and an Autonomous AI-Piloted Robot
CWSF · 2026 Environment & Climate Change Bronze Medal
Overview
11 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year. To recover these plastics, we employ problematic methods such as nets, traps, skimmers, and filters. Relying on manual labour, they tend to clog quickly, lack selectivity, cause animal deaths, and are inefficient with smaller particles. For this project, I designed, coded, constructed, and evaluated Ecoferroquatics Mk-1: an aquatic surface robot that is AI-piloted and utilizes ferrofluid (magnetic nano-particles suspended in a carrier fluid) to remove plastics from water. The robot was tested on its ability to recover 6 different polymer types and 3 different plastic size classes. After 9 trials in a controlled environment, the robot's abilities were quantified: ➤Collected 1.73 pieces per minute. ➤Removed 51.85% of plastics. ➤Performed better than a baseline(representing current methods) with smaller particles. This project advances science on the topic of automating environmental cleanup and the role that magnetism and chemistry plays in pollution control.
Awards (3)
- Special Award
- Bronze Medal
- Selected for CWSF 2026
Competition history
- CWSF 2026
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