MAR-P: Marine Autonomous Remover, Plastic Edition

Designed for classes Mechanical Engineering 102B (Mechatronics Design) and Mechanical Engineering 135 (Design of Microprocessor-Based Mechanical Systems), MAR-P is a small scale prototype of a robot that could one day help with the clean-up of plastic debris in the ocean. An acronym for Marine Autonomous Remover, Plastic Edition, MAR-P was built during the Spring 2011 semester of UC Berkeley in conjunction with a team of 3 other mechanical engineering undergraduate students (Cynthia Bayley, Griselda Cardona, Sarah Thornton, and Ricardo Zagal).

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MAR-P floating in the water.


MAR-P is a surface-water robot that is programed to propel around a body of water and collect plastic bottles. Controlled by two Arduino Duemilanove, MAR-P uses real-time programming and multi-tasking to traverse a body of water, avoid large objects such as walls, passively collect plastic bottles, and determine when to close its storage compartment doors.

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Poster detailing the design of MAR-P.


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CAD model of MAR-P.


Check out videos of our demonstration of MAR-P collecting plastic water bottles in a kiddie pool below.





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