Meet BeachBot, a beach rover that uses AI technology to remove cigarette butts from beaches

HOLLAND — As part of the efforts to tackle environmental challenges, the Business Insider reported on a new solution to eliminate cigarette butts from beaches.

This solution was dreamed up and brought to life by two entrepreneurs Edwin Bos and Martijn Lukaart; Who  assembled a beach-cleaning machine named BeachBot.

The concept started when Bos, together with his two kids was visiting Schenevingen Beach located 4.5 kilometers from the Dutch coast. There, his son found a cigarette butt while he was digging into the sand. This led Edwin Boss to begin brainstorming of a way of using technology to solve this issue.

With an appearance similar to a Mars rover, the Beachbot uses artificial intelligence image detection algorithms to search and pick up cigarette butts people have thrown onto the beach sand.

The BeachBot has the ability to look even for those cigarette butts partly buried in the sand. Developers are looking to further improve the AI to be able to detect and pick up other trash on the beach in the future but for now they are focused on cigarettes butts

The model machine was able to complete its initial demonstration last September and is set for another demo this summer.

TechTics the company Boss and Lukaart founded plans on adding two smaller companion rovers that will help BeachBot in detecting cigarette butts. These smaller machines will essentially scout the beach to look for cigarette butts and alert BB when they find one. TechTics wants the three machines as a trio for their beach-cleaning mission. A bigger plan for BeachBots and similar machines is to work autonomously and run on solar energy.