6th grade student invented robot

Designed with the function of hunting plastic trash, robot of 6th grade student Anna Du has just reached the final round of the science creativity competition in the US.

While scientists began "hunting" plastic garbage on the sea from the plane or even from the universe, Anna Du - a sixth-grade student in Andover, Massachusetts, hoped to contribute with a device. It was made by myself : a robot can move through the ocean to search for plastic waste, and it can eventually be collected.

"I always love sea creatures and love walking on the beach," the inventor shared.

My scientific work is one of 10 works that have reached the final round of the creative contest for young people called Discovery Young 3M Education Education.

Anna Du and her robot created with the function of hunting plastic trash on the sea - (Photo: ANNA DU).

"One day I noticed plastic trash everywhere around Boston harbor, I tried to pick them up and clean up. But because there was so much garbage, I wanted to do something to solve this problem." , Anna Du said.

Du understand that determining the location of plastic garbage on the sea is a very important step. I also learned from recycling companies in using infrared light to identify and sort plastic waste.

My water-activated robot also uses infrared rays to search for garbage, but it works under a new mechanism designed by me to help save costs.

"I hope to be able to map space where small pieces of plastic trash are accumulating , " she said.

Anna Du also wants to create a machine that can collect and remove plastic garbage after finding it, aiming to "create the most efficient plastic garbage removal machine".

Of the millions of tons of plastic waste that dumps into the sea every year, researchers can't know exactly where they end up going.

Many of them have accumulated over time and become big trash islands like the Pacific island of trash that are now thought to be three times the size of France.

Some of them are eaten by seabirds or whales. Recently, when a dead whale, washed up on the Thai coast, when it was removed, it was found that 7.7kg of plastic trash was in its belly.

However, a researcher on marine plastic garbage said that scientists cannot know the location of about 99% of that floating waste.