It might not look too jellyfish-like, but “Jellyfishbot” is more than meets the eye.
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00:00This might look like a tiny submarine scooting around the surface of the water, but it's
00:08not.
00:09This is what French designer Nicolas Carlesi calls Jellyfish Bot, and it may be cleaning
00:13up waterways near you soon.
00:15But if you're thinking to yourself, that doesn't look like a jellyfish, well it actually
00:19kind of does.
00:20The robot putters across the surface of the water, while a bag dangles behind it much
00:24like the tentacles of a jellyfish, all the while collecting whatever trash it runs over.
00:28Carlesi says he came up with the idea after watching people manually clean up dirty areas
00:32around the ports he leaves when going diving, but imagining he could make the tedious work
00:36both easier and more thorough.
00:38Which is why he also gave the jellyfish bot the ability to collect hydrocarbon on the
00:42surface of the water as well, allowing it to purge areas of floating debris, oil, and
00:47gasoline left behind by humans.
00:48The little bot clocks in at only around 28 inches by 28 inches big, which might seem
00:53small, but it allows it to get in between boats and other port side nooks and crannies.
00:58And since according to the World Wildlife Fund, around 660,000 tons of plastic end up
01:02in the Mediterranean alone every year, this tiny bot already has its work cut out for
01:07it.