Cigarette butts have finally met their nemesis: BeachBot, an AI-enabled robot

Every year, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts end up in the environment. Edwin Bos and Martijn Lukaart, cofounders of TechTics, came up with a human-robot interaction concept for a world without litter: BeachBot. BeachBot, or “BB” for short, can spot cigarette butts, pluck them out of the sand, and dispose of them in a safe bin. Anyone can connect with BB and make it smarter by training its image-detection algorithm with photos of cigarette butts. To help amass those photos, the BB team turned to Microsoft Trove, an app that connects AI developers with photo takers. Because of the team’s efforts, Scheveningen Beach, where BB completed its first demo, is on its way to a cleaner shoreline. Learn more: Subscribe to Microsoft on YouTube here: Follow us on social: LinkedIn: Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: