LUGIA

Elazığ/ Türkiye | Leveraging AI/ML for plastic marine debris

BC UNDERWATER CLEANING VEICHLE (BCUCV-21)

High-Level Project Summary

Our project is to use both hardware and software to both monitor and clean the coastal areas. It relies on people using an app to mark coastal areas that have been litttered.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/65893469/lugia-bcucv-21-power-point

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_zD2wbC4iwLDF-2ZbI582cmwQDXqOViW/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zM_H9T0e_DjhYFI58BssUtYRVk5xtmft/view?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

UNDER WATER GARBAGE COLLECTOR

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION

Plastic litters makes up 60% to 80% of marine litter. It is estimated that around 100 to 150 million tones of plastic litter float in the oceans and seas. 6.5 million tones are added to this every year. According to UN Environment Program data, an average of 13,000 plastics per square kilometer falls into the open seas. When plastics reach the sea as waste, they continue to exist in the seas for centuries due to their high decompositions temperature and resistance to ultraviolet rays and bacteria; cause great dangers to people, natural life and ecosystem.

WHY IS PLASTIC LITTER A PROBLEM?

Threats to the natural environment an ecosystem:

Micro-plastic wastes floating in the water are ingested by many different organisms. The toxic substances in them become a link in the food chain through sea creatures that swallow these particles and can reach humans. It is not easy at all to separate these invisible plastics from the micro-level sea creatures and to clean the ocean from this pollutant.

Macro-plastic waste reaching the seas can cause the death or suffering of marine mammals, sea turtles, reptiles, fish and seabirds that mistake it for food. Creatures that fill their stomachs by eating litter are starved and die from lack of nutrients. Ingested substances can also block the respiratory tract of the creature causing it to die by suffocation.

Threat to human health:

Plastic wastes in the sea and on the coast can cause the spread of harmful chemicals that threaten human health, injuries and the spread of infectious diseases.

It is difficult to watch:

It is almost impossible to follow the factors such as where a plastic litter is formed, what happened to it on the way and why it came to the destination, namely its route and destiny.

WHAT’S OUR SOLUTION?

We made BCUCV-21 for cleaning the coasts that are filled with garbage. BCUCV-21 uses an app that relies on users reporting coast areas that are filled with garbage. The BCUCV-21 goes to the reported areas and starts to check if the report is right or not. If it is right, BCUCV-21 detects garbage like plastics and it starts to collect them.

the vehicle reaches a sufficient fill rate, it inflates the BC system around it and rises to the water surface with the help of this system. After the emptying of the tank is provided by the officials, the BC system deflate and our vehicle goes under water for garbage collection.

we were inspired by the system that divers use. By doing that we saved both energy and money.

Here is an animation of the scene we made on blender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgBij1hEZZU

Space Agency Data

We used https://earthdata.nasa.gov/eosdis/daacs/nsidc

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/eosdis/daacs/nsidc

https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/

https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/marine-debris.html

https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/toxicological-threats-plastic

Hackathon Journey

It was an exciting experience. We learned a lot from these challenge. It was hard but it was totally worth it. Big thanks to everyone who supported us during this journey.

References

https://tudav.org/calismalar/kirlilik/denizel-copler/buyuk-tehlike-plastik-copler/#:~:text=Deniz%20%C3%A7%C3%B6plerinin%20%60%20ila%20%80,ortalama%2013%20bin%20plastik%20d%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%BCyor.

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/discipline/ocean