Indonesian Institute Develops Unmanned Ships to Combat Ocean Trash

A research team from the Naval Architecture Engineering department at Indonesia's Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) has engineered and constructed three unmanned ships specifically for cleaning ocean waste. Two of these vessels have already been dispatched to the waters of Bali and Kalimantan to tackle marine debris.

The innovation was driven by deep concern over the pervasive issue of ocean trash in Indonesia and its detrimental impact on marine ecosystems, according to Hasanudin, the head of the research team. His team designed a catamaran-style vessel, featuring two parallel hulls with an integrated trash collection system in the middle. The ships operate by approaching floating trash, guiding it into the collection area, and then transporting it to shore for processing.

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So, this ship has two parallel hulls, with a device in the middle to collect the trash.

ITS has produced three ships in total. The two larger, 8-meter-long and 2.6-meter-wide ships, each capable of holding 500 kilograms of trash, are currently being utilized by Pertamina in the waters off Bali and South Kalimantan. A smaller, 4 by 1.5-meter ship with a 300-kilogram capacity is being used within the ITS campus lake in Surabaya.

Hasanudin emphasized that the ships are designed for simplicity, ensuring ease of operation and maintenance for local communities, as overly complex technology often leads to high costs and a lack of skilled personnel. The vessels can be remotely controlled up to a kilometer away and are equipped with trash choppers, CCTV monitoring, and solar panels for power. The team also plans to integrate AI and IoT technology for automated detection of high-trash-density areas, fostering broader collaborations between academia, industry, and the community to protect Indonesia's maritime environment.

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These two larger ships have been utilized by Pertamina in the waters of Bali and South Kalimantan.