TechTics is a new tech start-up based in The Hague that I co-founded with Edwin Bos. Last year a team from the minor Robotics at TU Delft has helped us to create Project BeachBot. With Project.BB we want to scratch our own itch; to do something about our annoyance with short-sighted and ignorant people that litter on our beaches. We want to make people aware of the problems they cause. But we also want to build crazy stuff and experiment in a fun way. Put new concepts to the test that ideally utilise new tech.

But there is more behind this concept. We want to speed up the adoption of robots in the public space, start the discussion on how to educate and train robots. When our BeachBot rode onto the beach, it felt like the start of a new era of human-assisted machines. Until recently machines were used to assist humans, but the BeachBot takes on a different role. It collects litter, and then uses Artificial Intelligence to ask the public for assistance: “What should we do with all this litter?”

The craziness of this; that a robot is now asking for our help is what I particularly like about the project.

Martijn Lukaart
Co-founder of TechTics