Lead institution:
Stichting The Ocean Cleanup – The Netherlands
Understanding the sources, transport, and fate of plastic, creates the foundation to develop more efficient solutions to cleanup legacy plastic pollution in the Ocean. ADIS (Automated Ocean Debris Imaging System) is a low-cost fleet of smart cameras that provides a digital representation and dynamic monitorization of plastic debris concentrations in the ocean.
The smart cameras contain a neural processing unit (NPU), so that deep learning models are run on the camera itself. A plastic object detection model counts and locates floating large plastics (>0.5 m) encountered on the route. Each of the cameras can process the data locally, uploading only the detections and locations of debris, ADIS makes use of already functioning global cargo shipping vessels, which we equip with low-cost edge-AI-enabled cameras. By installing 500 cameras on ships globally and continuously, it is possible to establish new trends and baselines for monitoring and detecting ocean plastic accumulation zones.
Start Date: 01/01/2022
End Date: 31/12/2032
Lead Contact: Robin de Vries, ADIS Lead, The Ocean Cleanup (robin.devries@theoceancleanup.com)