SEBASTIAN INLET – On Friday, the Sebastian Inlet District tested a new tool to work in the battle against beach trash: the BeBot, a green beach-cleaning robot crafted to clear litter and debris from the shore while keeping harm to the environment as low as possible.
This eco-friendly machine, designed to scoop up everything from plastic fragments to cigarette butts, promises to revolutionize coastal cleanup efforts while leaving the environment undisturbed.
Manufactured by The Searial Cleaners—a subsidiary of Poralu Marine—and often deployed alongside partners like 4ocean, BeBot is a fully electric, solar-and battery-powered device. It’s capable of sifting through sand to nab debris as small as 1 square centimeter, including bottle caps, food wrappers, and other tiny culprits that often escape the naked eye.
Remote-controlled by a human operator from up to 984 feet away, the robot can tackle about 32,000 square feet in about an hour, depending on the landscape. The BeBot weighs a little more than 1,350 pounds.
It sifts sand to a depth of about 4 inches using a tracked system for agility, allowing it to navigate tight spaces and avoid sensitive areas like turtle nesting zones. Beyond sifting, it can rake seaweed, level sand, and even tow loads up to 800 pounds.
The BeBot offers a sustainable option for keeping coastlines clean. It easily navigates narrow areas and avoids delicate spots, such as the turtle nesting zones along the shoreline.
It’s not meant to replace volunteer efforts but to complement them, targeting hidden debris that humans often miss—sometimes collecting ten times more trash than manual cleanups in the same area.
For places like Sebastian Inlet, where nature and recreation intertwine, it’s a practical step toward preserving the beauty and balance of the shoreline.
