KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

PROJECT TOPIC
AN AUTONOMOUS GARBAGE COLLECTOR-ROBOTDUMPSTER

PROJECT SUPERVISOR
DR. KATE TAKYI

SUPERVISEE
MISS. RITA YEBOAH
MR. OSEI SYLVESTER
Abstract

The world today faces major garbage crisis- the product of rapid economic growth,
overcrowding, poor urban planning, corrosive corruption and political dysfunction.
The present tried and tested methods of garbage collection have so far been
proven ineffective. And the world today is looking at smarter ways of overcoming
the garbage collection problem. This paper presents an autonomous and a
driverless Garbage Collector which will be collecting garbage from one residence
to another, if the residents’ place a request on the internet. The autonomous
garbage collector will be design using an Intel Galileo board, Breadboard with
motors, resistors, connecting wires and a 9v battery Pack, which will provide
energy, and sensors for detecting trash. This system is design to make collection of
garbage convenient and efficient.

1. INTRODUCTION
Garbage collection has been a means to keep our environment clean. The garbage
get collected from the resident’s home at a specific time everyday.
The process has generated another sets of problems which includes;
I. When the garbage collector comes, resident’s(KNUST) may not have
enough garbage to be disposed.
II. They may not be present at all.

The smart garbage collector is equipped with IoT, which means it is connected to
the internet to allow users to place a request with just a click on the internet. When
a person clicks on the button, the collector gets the command to automatically
reach the house slots by following the black line which is available on the road
using the multiple IR sensors. There is one bin attached to the driving base which
will have one Servo Motor so that it can automatically open when it reaches the
slots and close it after taking the garbage. The automated garbage collector would
deliver an easy way of disposing garbage in the environs of campus KNUST.
Unlike the traditional way of collecting garbage, this system is a driverless system
of which no physical human interactions is involved.

1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to create a conducive atmosphere for managing our
garbage without any uncertainties. The AGC gives room for residents to place
request online so that it reaches specific homes to collect the garbage. It is
equipped with a bin to collect a trash. Once the trash is collected, it goes back to its
base position autonomously. The AGC is made in IoT (it is connected to internet)
and one can call the garbage collector vehicle at his or her home just by one click
on the internet.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Gabriele Ferri, Alessandro Manzi, et al. (May2011)[4] reported on the design

and the experimental results of Dust Cart, a wheeled autonomous robot for door-to
door garbage collection. Dust Cart is able to
navigate in urban environments avoiding static and dynamic obstacles and to
interact with human users. The robot is managed by an Ambient Intelligence
system(AmI) through a wireless connection:
it navigates to collect garbage bags to the houses of users and then moves to
discharge the collected waste to a dedicated area. The architecture, navigation and
localization systems are described along with the results achieved indifferent urban
sites. In particular, a localization approach based on optical beacons was used and
guaranteed position errors sufficient for a safe robot navigation. This can be
considered as a first step in using robotics in the everyday life of a real town for
providing a real service.

The highlighted advantages of this system are that ; the system gives room for
users who may not have internet access to still make use it. It does not restrict its
usage to the internet rather it moves door to door to find who really need it.
Another prompting advantage is that it saves the resource of the resident’s
(resources including time that would have been used to walk to the offices of these
robot made systems, money they would have used on data bundles and many
others).

However, the above system had some disadvantages. To mention a few is that a
resident may have to wait on a queue before the system gets to him or her because
the robot has to visit many homes before reaching a home which may really need
it. There is also a chance of the inventors of the robot running at a lost. That is, the
device may move to many residence without getting any garbage to collect at that
time. It literally waste time and not cost effective.

3. GAP IN KNOWLEDGE

The automated garbage collector which is the proposed system of this study is
aimed at solving the drawbacks of the mentioned existing system. The AGC would
have an internet platform where interested residents’ can place a request at their
own conveniences. This system is an effective system that would be cost effective
and resources will be well utilized. AGC gives its users a pre-knowledge about the
availability of the device at the time they need it. AGC also keep its inventor well
informed of its where about, how it is been used and the time when it is full to
return for disposal. This is made possible because the bin status is displayed on its
web server.

4. METHODOLOGY

Project Management methodology is defined as a combination of logically

related practices, methods and processes that determine how best to plan, develop,
control and deliver a project throughout the continuous implementation process
until successful completion and termination.

Project Management Methodology is a scientifically-proven, systematic and

disciplined approach to project design, execution and completion.

The Automated Garbage Collector will be designed using the below components;

1. Intel Galileo Gen1 Board

2. Power Cord
3. USB cable
4. Small Servo Motor
5. Infrared Sensor
6. 3V DC BO Motor
7. Motor Driver Board
8. 9V Battery Pack
9. 470 Resistor
10. Breadboard
11. Connecting Wires (Male to Female)
12. Connecting Wires (Male to Male)
 The web server of the Automated Garbage Collector will be designed using
a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) ie a sublime text editor, notepad++,
Cascading Stylesheet (CSS) etc.

Note:

There are important variables that the Automated Garbage Collector will use to
prove its validity. This is simplified in the flow chat diagram below:
References

[1] Saravana Kannan G, Sasi Kumar S, Ragavan R, Balakrishnan

M, “Automatic Garbage Separation Robot Using Image
Processing Technique”, International Journal of Scientific
and Research Publications, Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2016.
[2] Hesham Alsahafi, Majed Almaleky, “Design and
Implementation of Metallic Waste Collection Robot”,
SEE2014 Zone I Conference, April 3-5, 2014, University of
Bridgeport, Bridgpeort, CT, USA.
[3] Osiany Nurlansa, Dewi Anisa Istiqomah, Mahendra Astu
Sanggha Pawitra, Member, IACSIT “AGATOR (Automatic
Garbage Collector) as Automatic Garbage Collector Robot
Model” International Journal of Future Computer and
Communication, Vol. 3, No. 5, October 2014.