D5.2 Final report on operation of the Seabed Cleaning System in Venice

The MAELSTROM project aims to test and evaluate innovative technologies for the removal of marine litter in different coastal environments, also assessing theirimpact on the ecosystems in chosen demo sites and evaluating the economic and societal benefits of the MAELSTROM solutions within local economies. This deliverable illustrates the tests and cleaning campaigns carried out in 2022 and 2023 with the Seabed Cleaning Campaigns in the Venice Coastal area. The system was demonstrated to be quick and efficient, to be able to operate up to 20 m of depth and to collect items up to 130kg, having a real time control on the deck of all the operations of the cable robot, reaching TRL7. Although visibility made the Venice Coastal area an extreme scenario for the implementation of the Seabed Cleaning Platform, during the tests the Platform managed to efficiently and selectively collect more than 2200 kg of seafloor litter, and the technology was publicly demonstrated to the Venice stakeholders and citizen in June 2023. The collected litter was then used for the testing of the AI driven Sorting Robot and for the recycling processes of the platform. In the last part of the deliverable, we list the lesson learnt and suggestions for further upgrading of the Seabed Cleaning Platform to reach TRL9.