High-Level Project Summary
Our project is based on recycling the accumulated waste in the Pacific ocean, which is called Great Pacific Garbage Patch or GPGP. The boat we designed autonomously calculates its route to the desired location with the help of satellite data. In the application we designed, there is a section of the location of the boats, the load occupancy rate, the distance from the station, the distance to the filling station, the speed, instant charge status, and the sample drawings of the boat. On the main screen, you can see the places where the waste materials in the pacific ocean are concentrated as yellow and red regions. By clicking boats in the station you can view their instant charge status.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
There are stations near the garbage island and in order to collect the accumulated waste in the most convenient way. Boats collect garbage at several designated points unload their warehouses and recharge them.
After unloading the warehouse of the boat arriving at the station with the help of attendants, the journey of the waste begins in the main warehouse of the station for life, and then it is loaded onto the recycling ships and distributed to places such as the relevant institution, the contracted country. Thanks to our boats, we contribute to the sustainability of the world both by getting rid of the accumulated waste pile in the Pacific ocean and by recycling the incoming waste.
After the boat has recharged from the station, it determines its route to the island of plastic waste which is visible from satellite data. It autonomously calculates its route and shows the position of the boat, the occupancy rate of garbage in the warehouse, the remaining life of the battery in the mobile application at the same time as setting off. After reaching the desired position, hydraulic waste collectors open from the two sides of the boat to be able to take the spread waste to the garbage collector propeller first. After that, the engines of the garbage collector propeller start working and leave the waste it captures in the hydraulic press bucket. The hydraulic press bucket compresses the incoming waste and drags it towards the tank, making it take up less space. The boat returns to the station when its tank is full or its charge is low.
In the application we designed, there are sections of the location of the boats, the load occupancy rate, the distance from the station, the distance to the filling station, the speed, and the sample drawings of the boat. In the map section on the main screen, you can see the places where the waste materials in the pacific ocean are concentrated as yellow and red regions. The boats around it are vehicles that have departed from the station and been sent to the target area as "remote". These vehicles are recalled to the station after they fill their cargo tanks or when their charge level drops to a certain level, and the battery is charged. In addition, you can see the instant charge status of the boats at the station that is waiting for charging, thanks to the small window that opens at the bottom when you click on it.
Space Agency Data
We mostly used satellite images and data from NASA and ESA space agency. The satellite images influenced us to design more convenient method to eliminate the problem. Because, the problem is way bigger than it seems. These are some of the most helpful charts and data for our project as following;
and also from the resources we analyzed the fresh water availability affected from the GPGP, 
Hackathon Journey
We are very lucky to be able to participate in this program. We had the chance to meet hardworking and loving people, both inside and outside the team. During the preparation process, we learned a lot about environmental pollution through our research. The main reason why we chose this challenge was to embody the ideas of wonder and solution that occurred in our minds to protect the environment.
We started our project by identifying problem. After discussing how we could solve the problem we identified, we tried to achieve the best result by combining the best ideas. We drafted our idea and continued to develop it on the draft. We have developed a mobile application to track the boats. We formed meetings and expressed our ideas one by one on the problems we encountered. We did our assignment and continued on our way. Lastly, We would like to thank Baris Komurcu, who conveyed information and ideas to us during our work, and dear Ozge and Hande, who patiently listened to our questions.
References
Fish Ecosystem https://grist.org/food/2011-11-04-small-fish-big-ocean-pacific-forage/
Open Satellite Images https://www.qgis.org/en/site/
Evidences of GPGP https://www.iberdrola.com/environment/plastic-island-in-pacific-eighth-continent
Satellite Derived Environmental Indicators, freshwater sources and waste in the ocean https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/
Satellite Image https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/satellite-imagery-is-helping-to-detect-plastic-pollution-in-the-ocean/
Satellite Image https://www.iberdrola.com/environment/plastic-island-in-pacific-eighth-continent
Satellite Image of GPGPhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w
Plastic Accumulation https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w/figures/1
Garbage Patch Visualization Experiment and Video https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4375
https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/JES/article/view/5178
Chart and GPS datas and informations https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/chartsource.html
3D Modeling https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lAeAjIiWine-dazzling-elzing-crift/edit
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.