NOVAYA ZEMLYA, July 8. /TASS/. Participants in the Arctic Floating University’s expedition began tests of a robot, which can collect waste on the coastline, a TASS correspondent onboard the Professor Molchanov research\survey vessel reported. The tests were in Russkaya Gavan on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago’s Serverny Island.
"We went ashore for the first time in Russkaya Gavan, which was exciting," the robot’s designer Alexander Gordeichik told TASS. He is a fourth-year student at the Northern Arctic Federal University. "Right now we’ve had mostly movement trials - in covering a distance, in speed. The results are better than I could expect."
"When it moved along pebbles of different sizes, there were almost no problems. Up a hill near the beach - no problems either, and again no problems with turning on a spot," he added.
Robot Atlas
The robot is a six-wheeled vehicle, weighing about four kilograms, with installed manipulators and a video camera. The set of equipment depends on tasks, the designer explained. During the tests, the key objective was to understand whether the robot, dubbed Atlas, would be able to move on various surfaces, typical for the Arctic.
The vehicle practically did not slip anywhere, though certain problems were only when moving from a clay surface onto ice. "The most comfortable surface for it was the soil carpeted with small lichens," the designer said.
Right now, the robot carries a manipulator to pick cylinder objects like tins or plastic bottles. However, this equipment was not suitable for the waste in the Novaya Zemlya’s fjords. Most waste there is fragments of nets or plastics. During the expedition, the robot designers wanted to see the waste to understand what manipulators the robot should have, the student told TASS.
To dangerous places
The robot’s potential tasks are not limited to waste collection. "The Arctic is a severe region, and to certain parts people’d rather not go to remain alive. A robot is a material object, which has only the cost," the student said. "It may be used when people approach some dangerous places."
The designer says his product could be used, for example, to sample water near harsh rivers, under dangerous rocks or on risky steep slopes. For that purpose, he analyzes which methods the expedition participants use to collect samples and whether it may be possible to use a robot assistant in some cases. "For example, there has been a dangerous place, to where I would’ve never gone, along the coastline under a snow canopy," he explained. "As for the robot’s moving, it had no difficulties there. Additionally, the robot has driven quite easily under the brick buildings in Russkaya Gavan. Those buildings are on stilts, and they are in emergency conditions. The ground under them is flat enough for the robot to drive."
The robot is controlled remotely, and, according to the developer, a lot depends on how well the operator can control the vehicle. The video camera tests are still due. Its working distance must be up to five kilometers, he said. "Another expedition member with a laptop will remain on the bridge, and the signal will be transmitted from the surface to the ship," he added.
What Arctic waste is like
The robot developer assists the expedition’s group, which surveys plastic and microplastics in the Barents Sea. According to Alexandra Yershova of the Russian State Hydrometeorology University, the Barents Sea is the most contaminated sea in the Russian Arctic. The others are to an extent protected by the Novaya Zemlya, which is 800km long, stretching from the south to the north. The plastic waste floats on the surface, sinks to the seabed, and is thrown onto the coast. The situation will worsen with the growing navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
In the Barents Sea, most plastic contaminants are the waste from ships, and besides some plastic is brought by currents from the Atlantic. "This year, my research task is to identify best locations to monitor the sea waste. It is unreasonable to conduct any monitoring in closed parts of the bays, as nothing can get there," the expert continued. "We want to learn volumes of brought plastic, originating from different sources, from ships, and which is brought here by currents. In this part of the Barents Sea, the plastic mostly comes from ships: cargo, fishing or passenger."
In Russian Harbor’s closed part, the waste was practically exclusively the waste left from the polar station and the military unit, and almost no "fresh" waste. The situation in the bay’s open area was completely different. "There’s a big, long open beach to where a current comes," the researcher said. "There was a lot of plastic and wood on this beach, many logs."
The group found plastic items mainly of fishing origin, made in Scandinavian countries or in Russia: buoys, nets and their fragments, boxes for fish and their fragments. For example, the researchers found a float from a net made in Denmark.
There were also other objects of different origins. "We’ve found a package of yogurt, of some dairy product from the US. It read something like Minneapolis. This is already a mystery, it is impossible to say where it comes from, but anyway clearly it’s not Scandinavian or Russian," she said adding the packaging may be, for example, from a passenger ship, but most likely it had been brought to the Barents Sea by the current.
Work on testing the robot and to survey the sea waste will continue at Cape Zhelaniya and other locations in the north of Novaya Zemlya.
The Arctic Floating University is a joint project of the Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) and the Northern Department for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Sevhydromet). This year, the project is ten years old. The partners in 2022 are the Russian Geographical Society, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, VTB, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel, Rosneft, and the Arkhangelsk Region’s government.