Iadys is a robotics start-up that creates robots to clean up aquatic areas, recovering waste from the surface and even hydrocarbons.
The company agreed to answer our questions.
What is the IADYS solution?
IADYS designs, develops and markets innovations at the crossroads of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. The startup is committed to preserving the marine environment, notably with the Jellyfishbot: a small robot capable of collecting waste and hydrocarbons from the surface of the water. This robot is an effective and flexible solution for cleaning up aquatic areas that are more or less extensive and/or difficult to access, particularly in sheltered areas such as ports, marinas, lakes and canals, as well as leisure centers, hotel residences and industrial facilities.
What environmental challenges does IADYS address?
Every year, 8 to 13 million tonnes of additional plastic and 2.3 million tonnes of hydrocarbons end up in seas and oceans. There are an estimated 269 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans. In 2017, there were already 1 tonne of plastic for every 5 tonnes of fish, and if nothing is done, there will be more plastic than fish by 2050.
To this must be added the other forms of pollution now soiling our oceans (hydrocarbons, metals, green algae, etc.). Numerous regulatory measures have been adopted to prevent the discharge of waste into the environment. Despite these measures, an ever-increasing quantity of waste, carried by rain, wind or simply dumped through carelessness, ends up in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, around 80% of marine pollution is land-based. It is therefore essential to concentrate pollution control efforts as close as possible to the source (i.e. ports, rivers, canals), because once waste or polluting substances are dispersed at sea, it is virtually impossible to recover and treat them.
What added value do you bring to your customers?
Local authorities are responsible for enforcing legislation banning the dumping of waste. Managers of ports, canals, leisure resorts, tourist sites, hotel residences and even industrial sites are required to implement the means for collecting and treating waste/pollution on their respective bodies of water.
These structures are often confronted with two types of pollution: macro-waste (plastics, glass, natural debris, etc.) and accidental oil pollution. Ports and canals are particularly affected by macro-waste and hydrocarbons.
In the water, macro-waste is carried by currents and winds, and is mostly concentrated in small areas (between boats, under docks, etc.).
At present, this type of waste is collected manually (using landing nets) or, much more rarely, using specialized boats. This method is still exhausting for the staff, and only allows waste to be collected in easily accessible areas. Waste collection often takes several hours to clean a few dozen square meters. The cost of this type of operation is therefore high, for an unsatisfactory end result. With the Jellyfishbot, it’s possible to clean 1000m²/h at 1 knot very easily, since it’s radio-controlled. Once the net is full, a hook allows it to be removed directly, without having to take the robot out of the water. What’s more, we’re working on an autonomous version of the robot that will be available in early 2021, which will further facilitate the work of the personnel involved.
Have you identified any competitors? If so, what are your competitive advantages?
Our main competitors are the Seabin, a solution that has been on the market for several years. It takes the form of a waste garbage can immersed in water, which sucks up all types of floating waste. An internal absorbent fabric about ten centimetres in diameter can absorb small quantities of hydrocarbons. However, the Seabin is fixed and has a capacity of 30L, compared with 80L per net with the Jellyfishbot. Our little robot is mobile, so it can target waste directly and clean an entire surface.
The “WasteShark” and “Recyclamer” solutions are two electric vehicles of similar size, with the capacity to collect floating waste. Their size and weight make them difficult to transport and launch. With respective weights of 39~kg and 90~kg, handling them on land requires several people, compared with 20kg for the Jellyfishbot, which can be handled by a single person. A launching cart is also available for complex configurations.
What’s currently preventing you from completely filling your market?
With the Covid-19 health crisis, the priorities of local authorities and private organizations were more focused on health. Today, the resulting economic situation makes it rather complicated for these structures to invest in new technologies in the ecology sector. Since then, IADYS has been working hard to raise public awareness of water pollution issues, and to develop the reputation of the Jellyfishbot so that it becomes indispensable for any organization owning a body of water subject to the accumulation of waste or hydrocarbons.