CLEWISTON— Solaris Cybernetics, a leader in robotics and machine intelligence, has begun it’s C3 Project in Florida. With the assistance of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Mote Maritime Laboratories, the company has developed a program to deploy an autonomous robot that consumes toxic algae blooms and converts it into paraffin, a compound similar to beeswax. The sale of paraffin more than pays for the robots, thus allowing continuous ‘grooming’ of any body of water subject to algae blooms.

“The cost of cleaning algae blooms is replaced by a new source of income instead," explained company president Rudolph Behrens.

These use an improved version of the artificial intelligence called the Ariel Lens, a device that can "see' an  algae bloom as it is forming, hours or days before it is visible to the naked eye. The exact method is proprietary and patents are applied for or issued.

The robots can be quickly deployed. They are powered solely by sun and wind, are unobtrusive and completely silent with a very small footprint.

The first robot arrived in Clewiston last week.

The robots pay for themselves according to the  www.solariscybernetics.com  website.  The website explains: "Harmful algae blooms are a growing problem and will remain so until we find a way to prevent them we can live with. Right now we wait until a bloom becomes intolerable and then a public agency spends millions to clean up the damage. As these blooms become larger and more frequent, as they will, this will not be a sustainable strategy. We must find a way to interrupt the blooms before they can do any damage… and we must do it continuously. The question then is “who pays for that”? The answer is, the clean-up technology itself. Our VBShdl-2m20 Mobula robots produce $327 in revenue PER DAY. That is over $98,000 PER YEAR from a robot that barely costs that much. This is over & above any fees collected from public agencies to clean and/or prevent blooms. How? They convert the biomass of the bloom into paraffin wax, which sells commercially, in bulk, for $0.45 per pound… and the market is HUGE. It is used in the chemical industry, refining, food processing, agriculture, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals."

According to the website, the process removes the toxins and reduces the nutrient load in the water by 50%.

For more information visit, www.solariscybernetics.com.