Meet the Chinese fish robots that can ‘eat’ microplastics – and maybe help clean up oceans
- Small bots developed by researchers at Sichuan University absorbed plastic pollutants in tests in shallow water
- The next step is to see if they can do it at greater depths and analyse the contaminants in real time
It’s small, soft, eats microplastics and, with time, might be able to analyse marine pollution in real time.
In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nano Letters on June 22, researchers from Sichuan University in southwest China said the robot could also “self-heal” and absorb microplastics even when damaged.
For now, the soft robot only collects microplastics in the shallows.
But Wang Yuyan, one of the lead authors of the study, said the team was working on new materials that could work underwater and detect microplastic contaminants in real time – and one day maybe help stop the pollution.
“To further clarify the danger of microplastic composite pollutants, we believe that it is of great significance to develop a micro-sampling robot to accurately collect these harmful microplastic composite pollutants in the aquatic environment,” Wang said.
