OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Spring cleaning for our area waterways is getting more high tech.
The Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance held its annual cleanup Saturday with more than 1,700 volunteers being deployed to 65 cleanup sites.
At the UW-Oshkosh site, on the Fox River, a PixieDrone helped collect garbage.
Someone on land uses a remote control to help the drone collect trash floating in the water. Grates on the bottom of the drone are designed to collect the floating debris.
“It’s designed to be used in areas like marinas or areas that are closed off, not necessarily open water, but more in areas where trash kind of accumulates in the water,” said Carmen Ebert, a staff member with the UW-Oshkosh Environmental Research and Innovation Center.
“We collected about 60 pounds of trash and 10 pounds of recyclables in just two hours of work,” said Kevin Crawford, the UW-Oshkosh cleanup site leader.
UWO has two PixieDrones. The Environmental Protection Agency helped fund the first one and the grocer, Meijer, donated a second drone.
Ebert says Meijer also helped donate a BeBot, which is similar to a PixieDrone, but operates in sand.
