| Work Detail |
At the National University of La Plata (UNLP), in the capital of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, an autonomous device powered by photovoltaic energy was presented that allows the collection of waste and hydrocarbons on aquatic surfaces.
The equipment has been developed by the company Recyclamer Pampa Argentina, dedicated to caring for the environment, together with the Institute for Research in Electronics, Control and Signal Processing (LEICI) of the Faculty of Engineering of the UNLP.
Basically, it is a robot designed for the collection of waste in bodies of water and survey of hydro-environmental variables, as described.
As described by the LEICI researcher Juan Luis Rosendo, who participated in the development together with the academic Fabricio Garelli and a group of students and interns from the Faculty, "the robot has the ability to clean surface residues, and up to 40 cm deep, in bodies of water such as rivers, lagoons and ports, among others”.
"This depth -he continued- is where macro-plastics (bottles, bags, etc.), micro-plastics and floating hydrocarbons are usually found, which are among the main pollutants of water courses."
Regarding the assembly of technical knowledge and contributions, Rosendo explained that while the company Recyclamer Pampa Argentina contributed with its experience in the area of ??waste treatment and cleaning of bodies of water, from LEICI "it contributed with the automation of the system".
This automation "consisted of the design, sizing and electronic integration of a modular hardware architecture on board (speed controllers, computer, sensors, antenna, etc.), and the development of control logic to achieve robot autonomy" he added.
"The latter is not a trivial development -said the LEICI researcher-, but involved the application of models and control techniques developed specifically for this robot, as well as the integration of data fusion algorithms to capture information of the various sensors on board”.
The solar panels located on the deck of the device, which resembles a small catamaran without sails, can recharge the batteries that are planned while it is in operation.
In turn, the president and founder of Recyclamer Pampa Argentina, Alan D ´ Alfonso Peral, said that the companys objective is to develop systems for sale in Latin America and the Caribbean. |
