New technology is cleaning waterways in Southwest Florida
NORTH FORT MYERS – Michael Arens created Clean Earth Rovers while attending Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. “I had heard about the ocean plastics crisis for the first time in 2017. That really kickstarted a passion for me about healthy waterways and keeping our waterways clean,” said Arens.
Today, he has taken his water-cleaning robots coast to coast to clean up fish kills, red tide, oil spills, and algal blooms.
“What it is, is essentially a ‘Roomba’ for the waterways,” said Arens.
The vessels, thanks to a GPS and LIDAR system, can drive themselves. The robots are also equipped with 20- to 40-foot bags that can carry up to 300 pounds. Chief Technology Officer Robert Chavart says it makes cleanup much faster.
“You’re talking about deployment and recovery times when you have a spill event that used to be 4 to 6 hours. Now, you’re doing it in 40 minutes,” said Chavart.
Arens says it’s also a lot safer to use the robots to clean up red tide and blue-green algae.