Postgraduate students build garbage collecting boat

A group of postgraduate students from Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an have built a driverless boat that removes garbage floating on the surface of water, local media reports.

An operator controls the boat as it cleans water in a park in Xi'an on March 19, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

The 1.6-meter-long and 1.3-meter-wide boat can remove more than 20 kilograms of garbage from a waterway in a single trip. The boat is the fourth generation of a 2016 project led by a professor at the university, research student Chi Yuhao told an interviewer.

Before the boat went into public waters, it was tested hundreds of times in experiments. "There is a belt at the front of the boat, which helps capture the garbage and transport it to a garbage container in the center," said Chi Yuhao. "Thanks to a bunch of cutting-edge technologies, the boat can operate at a top speed of 5.4 kilometers per hour and work continuously for nearly eight hours on the water.

An overview of the boat in Xi'an on March 19, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

The boat is also capable of water quality and algae monitoring.

The boat has already been put to use in several cities around the country, including Xi'an, Yan'an, and Ningbo.