Drones clean the seabed. A new weapon in the fight against waste

Marine litter is not only pieces of plastic drifting on the surface. Tons of heavy and hazardous waste lie on the seabed, and unmanned drones controlled by artificial intelligence could take on the task of removing them. The SeaClear2.0 project is the latest European initiative in this field.

New technology versus waste

The European Union plans to reduce the level of litter in regional seas by half by 2030. In achieving this ambitious goal, the SeaClear system, funded by the EU Horizon programme, is helping by using cutting-edge technology to locate and remove waste lying on the seabed. The SeaClear2.0 project, implemented by 13 partners from Cyprus, Croatia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, continues the activities carried out in 2020-2023.

The drones have been equipped with AI modules that enable them to distinguish underwater waste from plants, rocks and marine organisms. Identification is also supported by advanced cameras and sonar systems, while the entire operation is remotely monitored by humans.

What are drones removing from European seas?

During technology demonstrations of SeaClear2.0 conducted in the marina in Marseille, the system retrieved, among other things, tyres, rusted ship parts, pieces of fencing, car seats and even heavy machinery. Removing this waste is of great importance for navigation safety, but it is also crucial from the perspective of marine ecosystem health. Many of the items recovered by the drones can release compounds harmful to marine organisms into the water for a long time.

As the project coordinator Bart De Schutter from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands explains, removing plastic waste is a particularly urgent task. If we do not retrieve plastic litter, it will break down into microplastics, which are very difficult to remove, he says.

Underwater drones are capable of capturing waste using claws or suction. If the object found is very heavy, a vessel equipped with a crane and an intelligent gripper provides assistance. The SeaClear system also includes aerial drones that scan the seabed and record the location of waste, as well as barges functioning as surface waste collectors that transport the retrieved debris to shore.

The SeaClear2.0 project will run until the end of 2026, and its authors plan to conduct further tests in Venice, Dubrovnik and Tarragona. In the future, the use of drones may be expanded to include the identification of unexploded ordnance from the Second World War.

The great sea cleanup gains momentum

The programme of using robots to clean the seabed is by no means new. In 2022, the Natural Robotics Contest announced by the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom was won by a robotic fish model that filters microplastics drifting in the water through its gills. In Norway, for more than three years, the unmanned surface vehicle CDV1 has been used to remove plastic marine waste from the water surface and just below it. Powered by electricity, it can operate continuously for 20 hours, collecting waste into a tank with a capacity of more than 60 litres.

Underwater cleaning drones have also been developed in France to support teams of divers engaged in waste retrieval. The Seasam and iBubble devices provide seabed monitoring and assist with towing recovered objects. In Australia, the company Down Deep Drones is refining swimming and seabed-driving robots that remove waste and additionally help combat invasive species.

In Croatia, at the University of Rijeka, work is underway on drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras capable of detecting and mapping oil spills in real time. Researchers there have demonstrated that hydrocarbon pollution can be identified even in conditions of poor or zero visibility.

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main photo: SeaClear Project