BETTER PLACE CHALLENGE

http://www.betterplacechallenge.com
IDEA SUBMISSION

Solar powered autonomous

Weed Collecting Robot for
lakes affected by Water
Hyacinth weeds

Submitted by:

Name: Ganeshan Kalmane

Address: Numag Data Systems Pvt Ltd
NO.30,11th Main, 1st Cross, Malleshpalya, Bengaluru- 560075. India
Ph:080-40987117 / 9341230975
www.numagdata.com
Email: ganesh@numagdata.com / ganesh.kalmane@gmail.com
 Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS....................................................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement....................................................................................................................................4
Problem..............................................................................................................................................4
Solution.............................................................................................................................................. 4
Mechanical removal methods........................................................................................................... 5
Our Solution............................................................................................................................................... 6
What way WCR is different from other methods......................................................................6
Technical description................................................................................................................. 7
Principle of working................................................................................................................... 7
Marketability..............................................................................................................................8
Productisation - challenges........................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
APPENDIX I -System Block Diagram......................................................................................................... 10
..................................................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX II - DODDA NEKKUNDI LAKE, BENGALURU, INDIA - Growth of Water Hyacinth.................... 11
SYNOPSIS

All over the world water bodies such as Lakes and rivers are getting lost due to pollution.
Lax regulatory mechanisms and lack of concern for environment among citizenry is
causing city waste water getting mixed with natural water flow into the water bodies and
water pollution is reaching alarming levels. This is causing growth of harmful weeds such
as Water Hyacinth In a large scale, which is inimical to the water bodies and
environmental health in general

This project is aimed at implementing a proof of concept design of a Solar powered Weed
Collecting Robot machine that can collect weeds from the affected lake and make teh job
of weed removal easier.

This product idea is expandable into a full fledged product , with further development, to
address a very critical need faced by a large number of communities around the world and
has significant marketing potential.
Problem Statement

Problem

In most of the developing world and in some countries of the developed world also, water
bodies such as Lakes and rivers are getting lost due to pollution. The traditional water
bodies interlinking architecture designed by our forefathers are being lost due to
uncontrolled urbanisation and unregulated growth of cities.

Lax regulatory mechanisms and lack of concern for environment among citizenry is
causing city waste water getting mixed with natural water flow into the water bodies and
water pollution is reaching alarming levels.

One of the effects of water pollution is uncontrolled growth of water hyacinth in lakes,
which spreads very fast to cover the full area of the lake in very short time. Water hyacinth
is a free floating aquatic plant , with dark green broad leaves,that spreads roots under
water with the following impact:
 It grows very fast in polluted water
 It forms a dense floating mat covering the large water area
 It excludes the covered water area of light and air - which affects fish and plants that
live under water
 It increases evapo-transpiration well above that of open water evaporation ( often
3 times more) thus causing significant water loss to the water bodies
 It prevents access to the water for the people living near the water body, by crowding
of plants near the water edges
 It can provide habitats for intermediate hosts for human diseases
 It can provide habitat for dangerous reptiles such as snakes and crocodiles

The problem of invasion of water hyacinth is widespread in most tropical countries in

Asia ,Africa, North America and South America

Given in Appendix II are some links/photographs of Dodda Nekkundi Lake in Bengaluru,

India. This lake, like lot of other lakes in Bengaluru, is greatly affected by growth of wtare
hyacinth. Our office is situated near by and our employees live in nearby areas and we
constantly feel that something needs to be done to solve this problem

Solution

 The most common method used all over the world is mechanical removal of the
plants by manpower or machines
 Use of herbicides
 Biological control
 Control of water pollution

Mechanical removal methods

Given below are links to some of the common methods of mechnical removal of water
hyacinth
http://www.aquatractor.com/integrated-environmental-solutions.aspx

https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/manage/control-methods/mechanical-control/

http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22839
Our Solution

As can be seen from the links given above, mechanical removal of weeds from water
bodies is not a small task. Huge machines have been designed to pull the weed our of
water and it needs a large investment in capital as well as revenue expenditure.
Further, the problem of weed attack is a recurring problem and there is need for
continuous maintenance

These machines pull out large tracts of weed from the water body and transport it out of
the water body. These machines are designed as large floating bodies capable pulling
large mass, lift out of water and transport. They are powered by powerful engines,
consume huge fuel and need skilled operators. The machines get into the water, reach
the place of weed attack and start pulling out the weed in large masses and are designed
to carry heavy weight

What is proposed in our solution is a micro management solution for this problem, by
designing an autonomous robot that floats on water, locates the weed position and pulls
the weed from the middle of the lake to a predesignated edge from where it can be taken
out through another machine.

A Weed Collecting Robot is proposed

This will be part of a larger system - Water Hyacinth Harvester which consists of two parts:
1. Weed collecting Robot
2. Weed Harvester

In this project, Weed Collecting Robot (WCR) is proposed to be designed

WCR is
 An autonomous vehicle that floats on lake water,
 Moves to where weed is found,
 Encircles a part of the weed
 Pulls the encircled weed to a predefined area in the lake
 Is Solar powered
 Is GPS enabled

The Weed Harvester is a stationery rolling conveyor belt based machine that is
installed at the lake edge, partly immersed in water ,moving a conveyor belt with teeth,
pulling the weds from water and delivering to lake shore and is solar powered

What way WCR is different from other methods

Other Mechanical systems currently in use Proposed system

Large size Micro size
Use powerful engines and guzzle fuel Small motors, based on solar power
Need skilled manpower to operate Autonomous, software controlled
Part of large commercial venture Small venture
Heavy machinery Light weight floating robot
Needs petroleum based fuel Solar powered
Handles large loads Works with micro loads
Directed by operator to harvest weeds and Pre programmed , based on GPS locations,
deliver to designated spot to deliver small amounts of weed , pulled on
water, to deliver to pre-defined spot. A
separate Weed harvester will take the weed
out of water

Technical description

The Weed Collecting Robot is built around

The RZ/A1-LU development kit

IAR Embedded Workbench
RZ/A Software Package
FreeRTOS

The system block diagram is shown in Appendix I and the essential sub systems are as
follows:

A central processing system that controls the whole unit , based on RZ/A1-LU
Development kit
A 2 sq meter Solar panel that is used to harvest solar energy for the operation of the unit
A 12V 80AH battery which will be charged by the solar panel
An MPPT charger for charging the battery from solar panel , whenever sunlight is
available
A 1HP BLDC motor to control the arm that pulls the weed
Two nos. 1HP BLDC motor used to navigate the unit over water from designated place
to the place where is discovered
Camera of the RZ/A1-LU development kit to stream the photos of the weed to an Android
smart phone
A WiFi interface with external antenna ( for increased range) to wirelessly connect to the
android smart phone
A GPS receiver with NMEA output to access navigation coordinates
IR Sensors to detect obstructions

Principle of working

The WCR working in the following steps:

 The WCR is anchored at the Lake shore and it’s GPS coordinates are registered
 During normal sunlight, the solar panel charges the Battery through MPPT charger
 The Battery provides the power supply for the whole unit
 The WCR operation is controlled by central control unit
 The whole WCR unit is mounted on a wide wooden platform , so that it floats on
water and can be moved around by a paddle, by pushing water just like manual
navigation of a small boat
 The WCR has the following mechanical subsystems
  A 30 cm X 30 cm wooden panel - called Paddle -which is immersed in water
 The Paddle movement - forward/backward oscillatory notion is controlled by a
12V DC 1HP BLDC motor
 The direction of paddle can be adjusted so that oscillatory motion of the paddle
will cause water movement in required direction
 A 2 meter long mechanical arm with a ring like structure at the edge, whose up
and down movement is controlled by a 1HP BLDC motor
 Motor 1 controls the direction of Paddle the solar panel collects the
 The WCR is controlled by commands from an ANdroid App
 The APP can instruct the WCR to move in a particular direction for a defined
approximate distance and retrieve the weed
 When instructed,the Control unit will do the following
 Decide the direction of movement
 Adjust the paddle position
 Adjust the paddle direction
 Start oscillatory movement of paddle
 Continuously monitor obstruction sensors ( IR sensors) to see if any obstruction
is sensed
 When obstruction is sensed, lower the mechanical arm
 With the mechanical arm lowered into water, reverse teh direction of paddle
 Start oscillatory movement of the paddle
 The whole unit starts moving the direction of anchor point
 When anchor point is reached, raise the mechanical arm
 When mechanical arm is lowered into water,the ring like structure at the edge of the
mechanical arm traps weeds inside it
 The ring diameter is decided based on how much weed needs to be trapped
 When WCR unit moves back to the anchor point, the trapped weeds move along with
it
 When WCR reaches anchor point, and raises the mechanical arm, trapped weed gets
released
 With this action, the weed grown in a part of the lake is delivered to the anchor point,
without any person getting into water


Pulling the weeds out of water at the anchor point will be done by a separate Weed
harvesting unit, which once again, can be solar powered

The proposed project is just to establsh the feasibility of developing a Weed

Collecting Robot

Marketability

The Weed Collecting Robot and Weed Harvesting unit, as a total system has tremendous
market potential.

Since the unit is autonomous and powered from solar, this can work 24 X 7, as long as
battery power is enough to operate the motors and hence microsteps in collecting weeds
will perform the operation of collecting weeds, over a period of time

Considering the cost of such a system will be very less as compared to a conventional
weed removal mechanical system, such a system can prove to be very beneficial to the
users
Of course, the product has to be fully developed, overcoming quite a few challenges of
product being placed housed in water, load handling capacity, all kinds of obstacles found
in the lake, detecting where weed is present etc ( Note: All such problems are not being
addressed at the present stage of the project, but these are part of the future development
of the idea into a product)

Productisation - challenges

Even though the product idea is simple, there are quite a few challenges it converting the
idea into a product, which can really be used in the field. Compared to the electronics and
software parts of the product, the mechanical system design is more complicated. A good
amount of Reasearch and Development is to be done on the following sub systems:

Design of mechanical arm and weed collecting ring at the edge of the mechanical arm
Design of Paddle and Paddle direction mechanism
Design of systems to handle wind effect
Problem of protecting battery from water vapour
Problem of protecting electronic circuits from water vapour
Problem of protecting the system from rain and wind , since the product is going to lying in
the open, in the lake , all the time

Conclusion

The product idea is very much realisable , but will need significant investment in time ,
money and resources to address the problem at hand comprehensively. The present
project envisages to address only a very small part of this development effort. We will be
looking at investment partners to realise the product, after this project is complete.
APPENDIX I -System Block Diagram

Solar Panel and MPPT Charger

GPS Receiver
Battery

DC motor to
control mechanical
arm
Central Control
Unit

DC motor to
control navigation
paddle position

WiFi
Interface
DC motor to
control navigation
paddle movement

Obstruction Sensors
Android
Smart
phone
APPENDIX II - DODDA NEKKUNDI LAKE,

BENGALURU, INDIA - Growth of Water

Hyacinth

Water Hyacinth plant

View of Dodda Nekkundi Lake

Another view of Dodda Nekkundi Lake

Press coverage about lake:
https://www.deccanherald.com/city/doddanekundi-lake-remains-681638.html

Some typical links for Water hyacinth problem in other lakes:

http://clubofmozambique.com/news/water-hyacinth-chokes-lake-k
ariba/

https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/oes/ocns/inv/cs/2299.htm

http://www.cleanlake.com/images/Water_Hyacinth_Lake_Victoria_J
APM_42_2004.pdf
http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/02/22/water-hyacinth-re-invades
-lake-victoria/
https://baynature.org/article/water-hyacinth-thrives-drought-stri
cken-delta/
Mechanical removal of Water hyacinth
https://www.google.com/search?q=mechanical+removal+of++water+
hyacinth&rlz=1C1EKKP_enUS791US793&biw=1366&bih=613&tb
m=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=c07XOIvynyWxoM%253A%252CeBU
L0UVOu2qM4M%252C_&usg=__QOdn8umDXjBUIjKUnhZ4ak_6Sls%
3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjz1cHN0MrcAhXwx1kKHTZaA1sQ9QEwC
noECAUQBA#imgrc=c07XOIvynyWxoM: