BeachBot Is a Robot That Picks Up Cigarette Butts From the Beach Posted on Were you aware that cigarette butts are the category of waste that is least disposed of? Every year, no fewer than 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are found in the wilds, even they can take up to 14 years to decompose... It’s enough to make you see red. To fight against this plague, Dutch engineers working with Delft University of Technology have invented the BeachBot, an autonomous robot capable of picking up cigarette butts from the ground. Tired of seeing their children find cigarette butts on beaches, Edwin Bos and Martijn Lukaart, Dutch engineers from TechTics, set out to create the BeachBot, an autonomous robot whose sensors have the ability to identify cigarette butts on beaches.