Skip to main content

"AquaCycler Ocean Waste Collection Drone"

image15-aquacycler.jpg

Ocean Recycler

Problem: Many coastal areas are polluted with small to large collections of floating garbage ranging from plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other man-made objects.

Solution: Build an open-source floating drone to clean up the oceans, lakes, and ponds using AI to identify man-made garbage and put them into a collection net. Ideally we could specify a specific area for the drone as its service area and it will continually clean its area and return home for charging and to empty its trash for recycling.

Timeframe: (varies by component)

Repository: <insert text>

Size Constraints: (???)

Prize: Get credited as a Project Contributor for the Ocean Builders Project, <insert text>

Target Build Cost: $300.00

Points:

  • Water drone design that can propel itself in water and pull a raised net behind it
  • Water drone that can find its way to a charging station
  • Design Charging Station
  • Water drone that can pick up or move trash it collects into a collection net or bin
  • Easily programming a drone to monitor a specific area for trash
  • Using AI to predict when trash will be in its zone (time of day, time of year, water currents)
  • Chart how much is collected per hour of work

Research:

https://siliconangle.com/2016/09/09/garbage-eating-drone-starts-cleaning-up-the-port-of-rotterdam/

http://www.solardrone.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/sauv-in-water-1220x575.png

http://www.libelium.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/airalab_drone_1100_1.jpg

https://www.trvst.world/projects/wasteshark-plastic-eating-drones/

https://d15shllkswkct0.cloudfront.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/RanMarin-Waste-Shark-drone.jpg

http://language.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/08/WS5cfb0188a3101765772300cd.html

https://www.trvst.world/projects/wasteshark-plastic-eating-drones/

https://twitter.com/RanMarineTech

https://www.wasteshark.com/

 

Target Build Cost: <text>

License Requirement: Open Source and available for personal or commercial use maintaining the same license for all future code iterations

Points

Required

Feature

500

Yes

Floating drone with an open area like a mouth at the front and a net in the center which collects garbage as the drone moves forward.

300

 

The front opening mouth has one or two arms and cover the mouth so it can selectively let items into the mouth

300

Yes

Elevated pole with an AI camera on top that can search 360 degrees for junk to “eat”

600

Yes

Can we set a programmable service area that it will continuously survey?

200

Yes

Does it have space for at least ten 330ml bottles or cans? 

200

Yes

Can the drone move forward

100

 

Can the drone move backward

300

Yes

Can the drone move left and right

100

 

Can it turn in its place

300

 

Can it return to a base station?

500

Yes

Can it identify the type of trash it is seeing?

400

Yes

Can it learn what type of trash to eat?

200

 

Can it detect when it is low on battery and return to its base station for charging?

500

 

Can it charge itself with solar power?

Project video link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/17rf0e7d2xppclz/AquaCycler.mp4?dl=0