In Downtown Chicago, the Chicago River is a popular sight for tourists wanting to see the Windy City. In 2017 the Chicago River flooded, making the 8 miles of the Loop muddy. This is when Urban Rivers, the non-profit environmental organization from Chicago, decided that something needed to be done with the worsening situation. In response to the growing concern by the citizens of the Chicago, Urban Rivers started the development of a floating garden in the river, in the hope of cleaning it and restoring it to its original glory.

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Recently, in an effort to change things up, Urban Rivers introduced a new initiative- a robot clean-up of the Chicago River. The company assembled a team called “The Robot Team” to work on a robot that would clean the river, but with the help of a game. So the idea was that the website would contain a game where a player can take out the trash in the river, while the robot imitated the plays in the game in real life.

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This became a game changer in the movement to clean the river as this actually indirectly involves the public in this movement, and makes it a fun and cool job that differentiates the movement from many others that were similar. An excerpt from their profile on KickStarter says “So we created a trash task force and went to the drawing board and this project could've never gotten to the sophistication it is at today without the hard work of the Robot Team. Our team then prototyped a remote control boat which was capable of herding trash to a safe location where it could then be removed. This proved not only effective... but super entertaining.”

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But establishing and implementing this program is not easy. Urban Rivers has financed the project out of its own pockets until now, and need help making it better and to continue running it. Their plans with the funds include building a weather- proof home base trash station, in which they will install a high powered Wi-Fi router which would enable them to increase the robot’s reach in the river, providing more clean-up in the same amount of time. Additional funds will go into research and development and might even include the option of adding another robot to the river.

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However, there are a few downfalls and risks involved in this project as well. There is a chance that the robot might be physically vandalised. Another risk is that there might be software hacking that could lead to the misuse of the robot. If there is a potential battery or oil leak it could further pollute the river instead of cleaning it. Which is also why they need more funding so that they can ensure that these activities do not occur.

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If you are interested in learning more about this project, or would like to support their efforts you can visit Urban Rivers’ Kickstarter page titled ‘Trash cleaning robot controlled by you.’