A functioning prototype of a robot fish that fishes out microplastics from rivers has been created.

The British University of Surrey's Natural Robotics competition, which invited competitors to create a design for an animal-inspired robot that would help society and the environment, was won by an open-sourced robot fish named "Gilbert."

The robotic fish filters the water and retains the microplastics inside its container as it swims thanks to gills on its sides and a small mesh in between them that can sieve about two-millimeter particles.

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