PRE2016 3 Groep5: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:47, 20 March 2017

Group Members

Student ID	Name
0957942	N.S.A. Messaoudi
0958470	J.J.J.B. Verstappen
0955491	C. van Otterlo
0939540	M.J.M. Smits
0956810	W.J.P. Goudriaan
0953119	J.I.A. Spapen

Presentation

Introduction:

Concise introduction to the project stating the name, group numbers and student names

Current situation:

For years the ocean has accumulated a lot of plastic, trapping it in the sea’s current. This plastic soup has become a danger to the oceans ecosystems and it’s wildlife. It has become a danger for animals because birds can get stuck in the plastic, birds and fish eat the plastic. When it decomposes the fish get contaminated with the various toxic residues. This contaminates the whole food chain as birds, larger fish and humans eat the contaminated sealife. Furthermore some species can get dragged along with the floating garbage and negatively influence new ecosystems in which they get introduced.

Concept idea:

We want to design an autonomous robot to help clean the ocean’s garbage. In order to reach this goal the robot has to have certain functions: First of it has to perceive it’s environment and the plastic contaminating it. It has to know or have the ability to get the plastic out of the water, this includes the waves and current of the ocean it’s cleaning. Once it has retrieved the plastic it has to compress it, store it in safe space aboard the robot and empty the compartment at a designated location when full.

Users:

The technology we want to design will influence the users future by investing in a better environment by cleaning it, preserving the current ecosystems contaminated by the plastic and lastly it helps preventing people from eating contaminated food as mentioned earlier.

Society:

By using the technology society will improve the future by stopping the influence plastic has on the environment. Cleaning the ocean is a start to creating a better society. And lastly it will preserve the current sealife.

Enterprise:

This technology can be used by the government to clean up the ocean and may be sponsored by foundations as Greenpeace and the WWF.

Challenges:

The biggest challenges in creating a suitable cleaning agent are first of all the fact that it needs to know where it is and where it needs to go. It needs to distinguish plastic content from any other products or wildlife it’s trying to safe, otherwise it would further damage the ecosystem. In order to do the two things mentioned above it needs to take into account the currents and waves so it doesn’t try to clean sections it has already cleaned and because of the current these locations will changes constantly. A big part of the problem is the fact that it needs to be optimized in order to efficient in cleaning. If one has more than one robot, they need to be able to “communicate” to prevent them from doing each other’s work, also this needs separate optimization because of the fact that we’re dealing with multiple entities. And lastly the technology needs to be sustainable and durable itself, because it wouldn’t have a use if it were to pollute the environment more than it is cleaning it.

The dusk of the plastic Ocean

The dawn of plastics was in America at the year 1850. However only since 1945, it was inseparable from our society, where it brought us great fortune and great use. Plastics helped people carry drinks, package foods and could be used as a toy for the kids. Present-day plastics are still used in large quantities, helping us in daily life, However the use of plastics also has its dark side. While plastic is most of the time recyclable, it is not sure whether a plastic bottle for instance gets recycled at all. People throw their garbage, which is mainly plastic, far too easily on the ground and in the rivers. Polluting the environment as a whole, the mainland and the oceans. Where on the mainland there are a lot of organizations, which focus on preserving the mainland’s environment. For example by sending people who collect plastics and other waste next to roads and in forests. The amount of organizations in the seas and oceans are however, greatly outnumbered. While the organizations on the mainland can hardly keep the pollution at a steady level, the pollution in the seas and oceans rise exponentially for several years already. The plastics in the ocean decompose gradually which results in a highly soiled sea which is more difficult to clean up. The small parts of plastics influence the marine ecosystem as a whole. Fish cannot tell food and plastic apart and slowly gets poisoned and killed by the plastic in its stomach. The same happens to many birds that gets their food out of the water, for example the albatross displayed below.

Image albatross

These plastics not only have an influence on the life of fish and bird, but it also has a great influence on mankind. Polluting our drink water which is more difficult to purify and polluting the food chain where we are on top, so that means that we eat all the toxins that animals below us eat. Therefore it is time that mankind focusses on cleaning up the ocean more effectively. In this project we want to create an AI which can help in the dusk of the plastic ocean. In that way the marine ecosystem can be preserved and mankind’s skin can be saved.

Plan of execution

In this part of the chapter I’m going to define a plan of execution for the chosen project challenge this will include a first explanation of the things we need to execute to reach our goal. Then there will be a definition of tasks, timetable, deliverables, milestones, Gantt chart. At first we want to analyze how the current situation is and at what scale we can clean up the with plastic polluted ocean. After that we want to analyze what it takes to clean up a part of ocean. That means that we want to follow the path of signals the robot needs from perceiving the plastic up until its motherboard and from its motherboard up until the actuators which executes the action. But also the signals of the environment up until the motherboard which influences the way in which the robot does its actions. When a plastic residue is stuck in coral it needs a different approach then when a plastic bag is drifting on the waves. So the robot has to perceive its environment before perceiving the plastic so that it gathers the plastic as fit for the situation. After analyzing we want to make steps for obtaining a real sense of how the robot should work. We want to set up a list of how it should do its work by making use of the logic rules we learnt in the Artificial Intelligence part of this course. In this way we can predict how the robot does its perceiving and which actions are connected to the perceived. After that we would want to try to build a simulation of the AI in the program NETLOGO. This simulation gives a simple model of the reality. We want an AI find all kinds of plastic residues, some which are out in the open and some are more easily gathered. The big difference to the reality is that it is 2-D instead of 3-D, that means that there is no depth difference.

Current Situation

In this part of the report we want to analyze the current situation to determine at what scale we can clean up the with plastic polluted ocean. The situation is already sketched in the introduction, however in this part it will be clarified more thoroughly. Recently, the accumulation and possible impacts of microplastic particles in the ocean have been recognized as an emerging environmental issue. To reduce the quantity of plastic entering the ocean, existing management instruments need to be made more effective and all aspects of waste treatment and disposal need to be improved. Media attention has focused on reports of the relatively high incidence of plastic debris in areas of the ocean referred to as ‘convergence zones’ or ‘ocean gyres’. This has given rise to the widespread use of terms like ’plastic soup’, ‘garbage patch’ and ‘ocean landfill’. Such terms are rather misleading in that much of the plastic debris in the ocean consists of fragments that are very small in size while the areas where they are floating are not, for example, distinguishable on satellite images. Nevertheless, Plastic Debris in the Ocean publicity resulting from media reports and from the activities of several NGOs has helped to raise public and political awareness of the global scale of the plastic debris problem, together with the larger issue of marine litter. It is difficult to quantify the amounts and sources of plastic and other types of debris entering the ocean. Land-based sources include poorly managed landfills, riverine transport, untreated sewage and storm water discharges, industrial and manufacturing facilities within adequate controls, wind-blown debris, recreational use of coastal areas, and tourist activities(Barnes et al. 2009).These sources are thought to dominate the overall supply of marine debris, but there are important regional variations. For example, shipping and fisheries are significant contributors in the East Asian Seas region and the southern North Sea (UNEP/COBSEA 2009, Galgani et al. 2010). In general, more litter is found closer to population centres, including a greater proportion of consumer

2 images

plastic itemssuch as bottles,shopping bags and personal hygiene products(Ocean Conservancy 2010). As already said the ocean is littered with a lot of plastic, almost 80 percent of the plastic that can be found in the oceans were originated from the shores. The plastic is carried along by the currents that exist in the ocean. These plastics sometimes run ashore where they can be easily gathered by humans with a garbage bag, however often those plastics stay in the ocean and drift all over the world. Therefore we wanted to look at the idea of collecting plastics inside a gyre, because gyres have a circular current which means that these plastic will float in circles for a long time and therefore can be more easily detected then plastics which stay outside of a gyre. There are 5 huge gyres in the total stretch of ocean. These gyres are given in the picture below.

image gyres

These five gyres are evaluated to determine whether it is realistic to clean up a gyre at all. They are evaluated by mentioning the following aspects: - Size gyre - Flow speed - Plastic Supply - The amount of plastic - Size patch The results of these 5 gyres are given in a table in the appendix.

existing organizations

Facts - More litter is found closer to population centres, including a greater proportion of consumer plastic items such as bottles, shopping bags and personal hygiene products (Ocean Conservancy 2010). - In general, potential chemical effects are likely to increase with a reduction in the size of plastic particles while physical effects, such as the entanglement of seals and other animals in drift plastic, increase with the size and complexity of the debris. - Costs associated with the presence of plastic and other types of marine debris are often borne by those affected rather than those responsible for the problem (ten Brink et al. 2009, Mouat et al. 2010). The most obvious impacts are economic, such as loss of fishing opportunities due to time spent cleaning litter from nets, propellers and blocked water intakes. Marine litter costs the Scottish fishing industry an average of between US$15 million and US$17 million per year, the equivalent of 5 per cent of the total revenue of affected fisheries. Marine litter is also a significant ongoing navigational hazard for vessels, as reflected in the increasing number of coastguard rescues to vessels with fouled propellers in Norway and the United Kingdom: there were 286 such rescues in British waters in 2008, at a cost of up to US$2.8 million (Mouat et al. 2010). - Cleanups of beaches and waterways can be expensive. In the Netherlands and Belgium, approximately US$13.65 million per year is spent on removing beach litter. - Other considerations include ‘aesthetic intangible costs’. Litter can affect the public’s perception of the quality of the surrounding environment. This, in turn, can lead to loss of income by local communities engaged in tourism, and in some cases by national economies dependent on tourism and associated economic activities (ten Brink et al. 2009, Mouat et al. 2010).

International conventions and tackling the problem - Monitoring, surveillance and research focusing on plastic and other types of marine litter have increased in recent years. Nevertheless, a comprehensive set of environmental indicators for use in assessments has been lacking, as have related social and economic indicators. These types of indicators could include trends in coastal population increase and urbanization, plastics production, fractions of waste recycled, tourism revenue, waste disposal methods, shipping tonnage and fishing activities. Indicators also provide a means to measure the effectiveness of mitigation measures, such as improved waste management and the introduction of economic measures. At the regional level, the European Commission is developing methods to assess the extent of the marine litter problem. This activity is taking place under the comprehensive Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU 2008, Galgani et al. 2010), with indicators being produced to monitor progress towards achieving ‘good environmental status’ by 2020.

Image

Short summary: two major conventions specifically address marine litter in the ocean: MARPOL and London convection with its protocol (London Protocol). Three catogories: 1. shipping pollution(marpol)2. reception facilities at ports and terminals for the reception of garbage 3. control of dumping of wastes at sea that have been generated on land (London convention)

Ocean clean up TECHNOLOGY Cleanup using conventional methods - vessels and nets - would take thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars to complete. The ocean clean up’s passive system could remove about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years, at a fraction of the cost. Why move through the ocean, if the ocean can move through you? Ocean garbage patches are vast but dispersed. By acting like an artificial coastline, we passively concentrate the plastic by orders of magnitude, 100% powered by natural ocean currents. Our passive cleanup units are designed to capture virtually any type of debris. Models show that by utilising vast rotational ocean currents, cleanup systems with a combined span of 100km can harvest almost half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years. Building an artificial coastline in the center of the Garbage Patch. Instead of using nets, The Ocean Cleanup uses solid screens which catches the floating plastic, but allows sea life to pass underneath the barrier with the current. The Ocean Cleanup Array is designed to be as flexible as possible. This allows it to move along with the waves, which is key in ensuring the structure will be able to survive the most extreme conditions. Diverting the plastic towards a central collection point. Thanks to the orientation of the barriers moored to the seabed, plastic will slowly be pushed towards the center of the array, becoming even more concentrated. Extract, store, ship, recycle. A central collection point extracts and buffers the debris, before being shipped to land. By recycling the debris and selling the semi-finished product directly to B2C companies, they aim to eventually make the operation self-sustainable. Autonomous, energy neutral and scale-able The modular array approach can be applied on any scale; from small-scale systems to intercept plastic near land, to multi-kilometer installations to clean up ocean garbage patches.

30 DECEMBER 2015 FIRST CLEANUP BARRIER TEST TO BE DEPLOYED IN DUTCH WATERS The Ocean Cleanup will be deploying a 100 meter-long barrier segment in the second quarter of 2016 in the North Sea, 23 km off the coast of The Netherlands The main objective of the North Sea test is to monitor the effects of real-life sea conditions, with a focus on waves and currents. The motions of the barrier and the loads on the system will be monitored by cameras and sensors. The floating barriers are regarded as one of the most critical elements of the concept, since they are responsible for capturing and concentrating the plastic debris. The North Sea test will be helping to ensure the effectiveness and durability once the large-scale system will be deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2020. Sponsors/Partners their partners can be found on the following page https://www.theoceancleanup.com/partners/

REFERENCES INITIATIEVEN OCEAAN SCHOONMAAK

The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities The Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, whose Secretariat is provided by UNEP, is the only global initiative that directly addresses the link between watersheds, coastal waters and the open ocean (UNEP/GPA 2011). It provides a mechanism for the development and implementation of initiatives to tackle transboundary issues. Plastic and other types of marine debris are such an issue. In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnitedNations(FAO), a comprehensive report on abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear has been published (Macfadyen et al. 2009).

Regional initiatives The Global Initiative on Marine Litter, a co-operative activity of UNEP/GPA and the UNEP Regional Seas Programme (UNEP/RSP), has organized and implemented numerous regional marine litter activities. The 18 Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans could serve as platforms for developing common regional strategies and promoting synergies, mainly at the national level, to prevent, reduce and remove marine litter (UNEP 2009b) National and local initiatives Ways to better understand and ultimately reduce the flow of plastic debris to the ocean are being sought through a range of national and local initiatives. For example, in the United States improved monitoring and assessment methods have been developed to identify and quantify the amounts and composition of marine litter. This initiative is coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partners. In the United Kingdom, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) encourages businesses to reduce waste, increase recycling and decrease reliance on landfill (WRAP 2011). To help raise awareness, UNEP and NOAA are co-hosting the 5th International Marine Debris Conference in March 2011 (IMDC 2011).

Industry initiatives - The Fishing for Litter campaign is an example of a low cost voluntary activity. Developed through the Local Authorities International Environmental Organisation, it encourages fishers based around the North Sea to collect and bring to port any litter retrieved in their nets (KIMO 2011). (kunnen we gebruiken om mogelijk mee samen te werken) - Regional Marine Environment Protection Associations (MEPAs) have been established by the shipping sector to preserve the marine environment through educating those in the sector, port communities and children. (HELMEPA 2011) The MEPAs’ commitment ‘To Save the Seas’ includes voluntary cooperation to protect the marine environment from pollution, awareness and educational activities, promotion of health and safety standards, and enhancement of quality standards and professional competence throughout the organization’s membership (INTERMEPA 2011). - The American and British plastics industries have implemented Operation Clean Sweep to reduce losses of resin pellets to the environment, particularly during their transport and shipment. Motivated by the need to comply with legislation, but also sound economics and good environmental stewardship, Operation Clean Sweep is contributing to the reduction of plastic pellets found in marine debris (Operation Clean Sweep 2011).

NGO Initiatives - The 5 Gyres initiative, which is currently investigating the distribution of microplastics and POPs in each of the five main ocean gyres in conjunction with Pangea Expeditions and the UN Safe Planet Campaign (5 Gyres 2011). - Using equipment loaned to them, citizen scientists collect samples of plastic debris during their own sailing voyages and report their findings to the Algalita Foundation (Travel Trawl 2011). - Project Kaisei is testing ways to remove some of the plastic in the ocean using low energy catch methods. Further studies are designed to determine types of remediation or recycling that could be applied to collected plastic material, including derelict fishing nets, so that there will be some potential for economic value creation to subsidize cleanup efforts (Project Kaisei 2011). - The annual International Coastal Cleanup organized by the Ocean Conservancy is the world’s largest volunteer effort to collect information on the amounts and types of marine debris. In 2009, 498818 volunteers from 108 countries and locations collected 3357 tonnes of debris from over 6000 sites (Ocean Conservancy 2010). Plastic bags, the second most common item removed, have much greater potential impact than the number one item (cigarettes/cigarette filters). - Clean Up the World is an initiative started by an individual motivated to take action by the amount of plastic debris he discovered when sailing in the open ocean. Since 1993, it has developed into an international programme designed to encourage communities to work together to make a positive difference to the environment (CUW 2011).

scources: 1. http://www.wur.nl/upload_mm/8/7/e/d4e96e28-e836-46ca-8467-664f529430c8_Plastic%20debris%20in%20the%20ocean.pdf main article used for this 2. http://www.wur.nl/nl/Dossiers/dossier/Plastic-afval-in-zee.htm database with atricles about plastic debris

     3.   https://www.theoceancleanup.com/ ocean clean up

final project plan

After some consideration we concluded that gyres were not achievable in our project to clean up. The gyres were first of all way too big, second of all are the plastics often too small due to decomposition and third of all there are already some organizations, like the Ocean-Clean-Up , which is trying to develop a plan to clean up the gyres (Other information about the gyres can be found in the appendix). Therefore we want to have a look closer to our homes and trying to focus on the Northsea. This means that we won’t clean up the ocean entirely, but we will make a robot that will prevent the plastics in the Northsea to join any gyre at all. This plan when executed in the right way could be implemented at many other shores throughout the world. This means that other big companies can focus on the clean up inside a gyre and our robot will prevent the gyre from getting bigger. We hope to get financial support by the government of the Netherlands, “ministerie van infrastructuur en Milieu” to be precise. We think that getting rid of all the plastics in the ocean will result in a better environment, and a better habitat for all the living creatures in the Northsea. Furthermore the Netherlands are characterized by its great amount of water, which means that for a good environment inside the Netherlands we have to start with creating a better environment in the waters surrounding the shores. Furthermore we know for a fact that the government of the Netherlands want to make an effort in cleaning up the garbage in national and international waters. Therefore we think that the government will fund our project. To determine where we should station the groups of robot we should take the currents in the Northsea near the Netherlands and the sources of the plastics that came from the shores into account. The currents near the Netherlands looks as follows:

two images

The current of the Northsea flows northbound, parallel to the coast of the Netherlands. This is the case for the upstream which contains the floating pieces of plastic. However, this is the case when the there is a high tide. For a low tide the current will shift southbound. This will have no influence on the placement of the robots, because the currents location will not change. The hotspots for where to place the robots will be determined by a few factors e.g. shipping traffic, recreational beaches and fishing industry. The three most visited recreational beaches in the Netherlands are Zandvoort, Scheveningen and Renesse. The three biggest harbors of the Netherlands can be found in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Vlissingen. Fisheries can be mostly found in the province of Zeeland and in Ijmuiden. When we take all these locations into account we can set up the following potential locations to station the robots.

image

We included den Helder because it also is an important harbor and the pass way into the Waddenzee. Furthermore did we include the sea above the Waddeneilanden because we can use it as a control group. Our project is an succes when at the end of the stream (so at the waddeneilanden) there is no plastic found after the control group, when there is a high tide. In case of a low tide this control group will be at Zeeland. The plan is to apply robots which scan and map the coastline of the Netherlands. Furthermore they will monitor the amount of plastic and other waste floating in the area. The AI can choose which path to go to clean up the plastics. The system will be a multiple agent environment which means that is has to stay in contact with other agents to clean up the area more efficient. The difference between high tide and low tide will slightly change the most efficient path that the robot has to go, due to the changing current. The AI will gather and store the plastics found in a compartment inside its own body. When the compartment is full the AI can bring it to several spots where the waste is gathered and where the waste can be recycled. The AI has to deal with sea creatures and sea traffic. The AI has to distinguish the difference between waste and sealife. Now that the focus of our project is clear we will try to get more into the logistics of the problem.

logistics

At sea the plastic will be gathered and compressed, but the robot has only so much space for the compressed packages. So as soon as the storage space is full, it has to empty itself. In the previous chapter 5 main locations were given in which the robots would operate. At each of these locations a general gathering point has to be established. So the robots operating in area X each share the same gathering point Y where they can deliver their garbage.

Now all the plastic is gathered at the shore is will have to be compressed once more. The compressors on the robot only have so much power, so in order to make the transport on land as efficient as possible they have to be compressed by a bigger compressor before the final package can be loaded on its next transporter. Seen from the map of the Netherlands Utrecht would be the best point for a global gathering point of all the plastic, due to its central geographic position. The only 2 realistic forms of transport are either by truck or train. The more remote the gathering point is the harder it is to transport them by train, since railroads aren’t as common as highways. Another aspect is that the dense populated areas often have to burden with traffic jams. The combination of these elements lead to the conclusion that for the remote areas 1* and 5* transportation by truck will be more efficient, while for areas 2*,3* and 4* the train would be a more beneficial alternative.

:

1. The coastline of ‘’Zeeland’’, especially peninsulas ‘’Walcheren’’ and ‘’Schouwen-Duiveland’’ (including hotspots like ‘’Vlissingen’’ and ‘’Renesse’’). 2. The outlet of the harbour of ‘’Rotterdam’’ and ‘’Scheveningen’’. 3. The outlet of the harbour of ‘’Amsterdam’’ and ‘’Zandvoort’’. 4. The harbour of ‘’Den Helder’’ and coastline of ‘’Texel’’. 5. The northern part of ‘’de Waddenzee’’ especially the 2 bigger islands ‘’Terschelling’’ and ‘’Ameland’’. Taking a look at the map of the province of ‘’Utrecht’’ a good collecting point would be ‘’Breukelen’’ or ‘’Woerden’’, since it both places are reachable by either truck and train and they lay well out of the busy ring road of ‘’Utrecht’’. In one of those place a collecting point would be established, where after collection the plastic can be recycled.

image For the 5 gathering point at the coast the most central point will be chosen as location for collection the pre compressed garbage. Like already mentioned the plastic will be compressed once more by a stronger compressor before it gets stocked in a container which can be shipped to the main collecting point. Since nobody wants a garbage dump in their backyard a town won’t be the best solutions, but any piece of unused land at the shore not too far from the highway would suffice.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Utrecht_klein2.png/550px-Utrecht_klein2.png

Appendix

Table

Assumption:

Some assumptions have to be made before there can be any calculating and investigating the project.

Solution 1:

1. The drone it’s lifetime is 60 minutes. 2. It can fly with a maximum of 100 km/h. 3. It takes 30 seconds to pick up a unit of plastic garbage. 4. Whenever the drone picks up a unit of plastic garbage, it will bring it to the closest platform. 5. There will be enough platforms in the sea, so that the drone is at all times at a maximum distance of 5 km of the platform. 6. A drone has to stay at least 100 meters away from a person/boat.

Solution 2:

1. The boat has a lifetime is dependent of the motor and the amount of fuel it will hold. 2. The speed is dependent of the length of the boat. 3. It takes 30 seconds to pick up a unit of plastic garbage. 4. When it takes a unit of plastic garbage it will put it in a compression chamber and compress it. 5. When the compression chamber is full then it will go back to a designated location to empty the chamber.

Interested buyers:

The government is probably interested in this technology. It is a way to keep the environment clean. Not only the plastic soup will get cleaner but also the beaches will not have plastic garbage on it. Which results in cleaner beaches and it’s less dangerous for people going to the beach and children playing on it.

Agent Design

Wish list

- An agent needs a mechanism to retrieve/pick up plastic out of the water

- An agent needs to recognize and track down plastic.

- An agent needs a good understanding of the environment to make sure the whole area is clean (currents).

- An agent needs to navigate.

- The full system needs to clean and keep the north sea at the coast of the Netherlands clean.

- An agent needs to be water resistant.

- An agent needs to be able to store the retrieved plastic.

- An agent must be mobile in the sea, (handling with waves and recovering after being upside down).

- An agent needs to bring the retrieved plastic to collection points.

- An agent needs to be autonomous

Preferences

- The whole system has to be as cheap as possible.

- The robots should use as little energy as possible

- It would be nice if the robot could retrieve plastic underwater as well

- It would be nice if our system could be scaled and can be used for bigger projects

- The agents need to work as effective as possible

- Solar powered agents

Constraints

- The costs : plastic recovery ratio has to be high enough for the project to get sponsored

Sensors

The robot follows a certain path according to their sensors. The camera first percepts its area. When it does this, it also scans the sea. Here it can recognize plastic. When the camera percepts an unknown unit, it will first look at it and ask itself. Is this plastic or not? The plastic can be recognized by common shapes of plastic bottles for example. When it is not plastic it will communicate this with other agents, so that they won’t take a look at it and already know it is not plastic. Then it will sail further to another location and start over again. However when it is a plastic unit, it can use ultrasound. This sends soundwaves to the object and some waves will be reflected back. This can measure the distance between the object. Then it will navigate with the GPS to the plastic unit and picks it up. When it goes to the plastic, it also communicates with the other agents to let them know, he already goes to that plastic unit. After it has picked up the plastic, it will put it in its storage. After this the cycle repeats itself. However when the storage is full, it will go to a station to get rid of its content. It will also update the agents in the area that it is emptying its storage, so that they can also go to that area. There is a second moment, when it has to go back. If the battery is lower than 10/15 % it will also go back to the station, to reload. The Agent also has to communicate that with the other agents, so it can be replaced by an agent that has a full battery.

The AI will be a floating robot, that can take the plastic out of the sea. It will have a container at the middle in the back, where the plastic will be put in. Here it will also be compressed. The plastic will be put into the container by a conveyer belt. The plastic will be shoved on the conveyer belt by 2 rotating arms, that put the plastic in a place where it will be put on the conveyer belt. On the 2 sides of the container, there will be 2 beaters. At the back of the 2 beaters there are is a motor for each beater. This way it can also steer, just like with caterpillar tracks. Under the conveyer belt is enough space for the electricity to steer the robot. There is enough space for the camera and other sensors on the robot. The belt of the conveyer belt has to have some profile in it or very small spikes, so it has enough friction for the plastic unit not to fall off. There also is a small wall on each side of the belt, so the plastic unit doesn’t fall off that side.

When it is stuck for example in coral or some other things, it might be a good idea to make more of a grabbing claw of the arms, while they are now just straight planks that can open and close. When we make a sort of claw shape of them, they might be able to grab plastic easier in difficult situations.

Sensors:

1. Camera, so it can perceive its environment.

2. GPS, so it knows where it is.

3. Communicating device to communicate with other agents.

4. Ultrasound sensor, so it can measure the distance to different objects.

Process:

1. It percepts the plastic unit or it gets a signal that there is a plastic unit on its way.

2. It sails to the plastic unit.

3. It analyses the situation. Is it floating or is it stuck in coral for example.

4. Find a way to grab the plastic unit.

5. The arms reel in the plastic unit.

6. The plastic unit goes on the conveyer belt.

7. The conveyer belt puts the plastic unit in the container.

8. When there is a significant amount of plastic in the container it will compress it.

Important notes:

1. It is important to note here, that it will not compress every time it finds a plastic unit. It would be a waste of energy to do that with every plastic unit.

2. It is also important to note, that the conveyer belt is not active all the time. It Is only active when a sensor senses that a plastic unit is reeled in. Otherwise it would be a waste of energy.

Below are 2 pictures of the model made in CAD. It is a global model, so not everything is on it yet.

Milestones

Given the sheer size of the plastic soup, stated in the chapter context, cleaning it up will be a difficult time-consuming process. So there are some milestones that have to be set, so the progress can be somewhat measured. Basically those milestones are intermediate objectives we set for ourselves, in order to keep the project realistic in the given time.

The ultimate goal is obviously to clean up the whole plastic soup which currently floats in the oceans, as fast as possible. Another goal is to solve the problem at the source, plastic getting thrown in the oceans. Together these objectives form the basis of the project, but later on in the process it is very well possible more milestones will be added.

Starting with the first milestone, removing plastic from the oceans. Since the plastic soup is approximately between 700.000 and 15.000.000 square kilometres big it will take years to clean it up entirely. Another problem is that there isn’t just one soup, there are multiple soups located on different parts of the earth. According to Boyan Slats it would take less than 5 years to clean up one gyre. A gyre is a circular ocean current located in the big oceans, there are the 5 major gyres. So with only one cleaning system it would still take over two decades to clean up the plastic, so this would be a realistic milestone timewise.

Another import issue is the definition of a clean ocean. The soup isn’t necessarily visible plastic, it is also the for a part micro plastics. After a period of time a part of the plastic breaks down into micro plastics, those micro plastics end up in the food chain. As a consequence water gets a certain amount of micro parts plastic per cubic meter. We don’t think it is a realistic milestone to purify the water to that extend, so we will define clean as all the visible plastic removed.

Those were the main milestones for the cleaning part of the project. But to solve a problem one has to start at the source. In this case the plastic being thrown in the oceans. This problem can be tackled in two ways, a legal prohibition or a clean-up service right at the shores. A combination of those will probably work best. Since approximately 80% of the plastic ends up in the soup comes from the shores, the rest is due to the sea-industry. So there is definitely room for improvement on that area. The ultimate goal with our platform solution (see chapter context) is to make the coast plastic free, so the soup won’t grow any bigger than it already is.

Tasks

1. State-of-the-art: what is the current situation in our field of research? (2 persons)

  Literature study
  What can be improved?

2. Description of the robot (2 persons)

  What kind of robot? (drone, floating, etc.)
  How does the robot pick up the plastic?
  How does the robot store the picked up plastic?
  How much plastic can the robot carry?
  Where does the robot take the plastic?
  What is done with the plastic once it’s removed from the sea?

3. NetLogo (2 persons)

  Create the environment of the robot in NetLogo
  Simulate the robot’s behavior

4. Conclusions (everybody)

  Is the robot efficient?
  Will the robot reduce the plastic soup? Or just prevent it from growing bigger?

State-of-the-art: has to be done at the end of week 5

Description of the robot: has to be done at the end of week 5

NetLogo: has to be done at the end of week 6

Conclusions: has to be done at the end of week 7

All the different tasks can start right away, except the conclusions, these will start in week 7.

Different types of cleaning robots:

In this section we will define three types of robots.

The first are robots that clean the ocean via brute force, this means they keep cleaning the same designated area over and over until they have run out of battery to the point their program tells them to move to a charging station. The second type are robots that use sensors to recognize the shape of plastic and other pollution and move to the location to clean it up. After they’ve cleaned up the garbage they start scanning again. And lastly the third type are robots that use ultrasound to scan the ocean for garbage and use the same cleaning procedure as robot prototype two. Below follows a description of the different types, good and bad aspects and both construction and operating cost.

Brute force option:

Description: This prototype will have all the basic necessities, this means storage, motors, the ability to float on water, GPS and a mechanism for retrieving garbage from the ocean. It’s way of working is via brute force: from the central communication center it will get allocated to an area of the ocean. Once the robot arrives at its location it will start moving over the whole area, sweeping up every piece of garbage on its way. Once it is done it will start over again until the battery level hits a certain threshold or the compartment is full, after which it will make its way over to the charging station and get its compartment emptied as well.

Good and bad points:

Good:

- Simple design

- When the path of cleaning is well designed, it should have few pieces of garbage seeping through its area

- Compartments can be smaller due to the fact that more robots need to be used for cleaning

Bad:

- Needs a lot more agents than the other two options due to the fact that it’s using brute force instead of targeted cleaning, or the cleaning can take much longer than when using the other options

- Even with good cleaning paths the garbage can get through

- More agents means more charging options and more substitution agents to fill up the gaps from traveling agents, which can in turn cost more

Cost: The costs of this option will be the least of all the options listed. Due to the fact that this option uses only the features that are absolutely necessary in this robot. But the fact that more robots could be necessary (see above), the costs could go up.

Shape recognition option:

Description This prototype will have all the basic necessities as described in the previous prototype, but it will also be outfitted with a camera and shape recognition software. From the central communication center it will get allocated to an area of the ocean. Once arrived it will start scanning the area for shapes it deems worthy of cleaning up. When it sees a shape it perceives as plastic, it will move over to the location and clean it up, storing it in the compartment. When done it will move on with scanning and the cycle will start over again until the battery level hits a certain threshold or the compartment is full, after which it will make its way over to the charging station and get its compartment emptied as well.

Good and bad points:

Good:

- Targeted cleaning means less agents than brute force cleaning

- Less agents means less charging options and substitute agents which means lower construction and operation cost

Bad:

- Technology is not yet advanced to the point that it is a feasible option due to the recognition range

- Pixel distortion and image distortion can lead to recognition of non-existent garbage

- In scanning and cleaning garbage can seep through if the software is not correctly calibrated.

- Cameras have no depth perception when using a single camera, since it only tracks pixel data and no distance

- Some things that are garbage might not be received as such

Cost: The costs of this option would rise severely owing to the fact that shape recognizing technology is fairly new to the market, and new technologies tend to cost more than technologies already longer existing. The implementing of this technology could also cause a rise in the costs. The size of the sensor would cause an increase in the dimensions and weight of the robot, among other things.

Ultrasound option:

Description This prototype will have all the basic necessities as described in the first prototype, but it will also be outfitted with an ultrasound device. From the central communication center it will get allocated to an area of the ocean. When it gets there it will start scanning the ocean for pieces of plastic and other garbage. When it sees something it perceives as garbage the same procedure as the second prototype is initiated.

Good and bad points:

Good:

- Targeted cleaning means less agents than brute force cleaning

- Less agents means less charging options and substitute agents which means lower construction and operation cost

- Wide scanning area

- Tracks depth

- Can recognize garbage that is underwater

Bad:

- Small objects might not be recognized, as they are seen as noise or get lost in continuous error and noise adjustments.

- Maritime life can be seen as garbage and therefore cleaned up.

- Presumably very sensitive to adjustments

- Might have low accuracy compared to prototype two

Cost: The costs of this option will lie in between the costs of the other two options. The ultrasound technology has been on the market for a longer time, so it is further developed, and also cheaper and less than shape recognizing sensors. Another advantage is that waterproof ultrasound sensors already exist and could easily be bought. Ultrasound sensors sell at prices between $10 and $250. We need to determine the scanning range in order to choose one type of ultrasound sensor, and with that its price.

Our choice: We chose for the ultrasound option, because this extra added feature is worth its costs. It adds efficiency to the robot in a way that it knows where objects in the sea are in its direct environment.

Our Goal: With the use of our robot we want to make sure that all the plastic waste that originates from the coast of the Netherlands is cleaned up and therefore doesn’t move to the gyres.

Information gathering

1. Is er voldoende behoefte aan een oplossing voor dit probleem, zodat de investering daadwerkelijk gemaakt gaat worden?

Er zijn vele organisaties die zich bezig houden met dit probleem, en die er ook echt het probleem van inzien. Niet alleen de vervuilingskwestie op zich vormt volgens deze organisaties een probleem, maar ook de gezondheidskwesties wanneer de plastics afbreken en in de voedselketen terecht komen. In deze organisaties worden vaak veel geld investeert vanuit de regering, echter vaak zijn deze organisaties lang bezig met het vinden van een oplossing en steken ze tot nu toe vaak op concept ideeën. Als wij dus kunnen aantonen dat ons project dé oplossing is, zal er zeker geld in geïnvesteerd worden. 2. Welke soorten plastic voorwerpen komen het meest voor als afval in de Noordzee?

Verschillende instanties zoals Rijkswaterstaat en Stichting de Noordzee monitoren het (plastic) afval op de stranden en in de Noordzee. Hieruit is een top 10 samengesteld van de meest voorkomende afvalitems; a. Touwen en netten b. Stukjes plastic c. Plastic zakken d. Doppen e. Snoepverpakkingen f. Ballonnen g. Plastic drank flessen h. Hout i. Plastic voedsel verpakking j. Industrieel plastic

3. Wat is de voornaamste bron van plastic afval aan de Nederlandse kustlijn gezien?

Meer dan de helft van het afval komt van de maritieme sector. Dus logischerwijs zijn de grote havensteden geografisch gezien een ‘’hotspot’’ wat betreft het dumpen van plastic afval in de Noordzee. De overige vervuiling komt voornamelijk bij de strandgangers vandaan, dus ook drukbezochten stranden zijn potentiële schoonmaak plaatsen.

4. Zijn er zogeheten ‘’Hotspots’’ waar het afval zich (onder invloed van stroming) verzamelt, zijn deze op land en/of op zee? Zo ja, waar bevinden deze plekken zich?

Het is in het algemeen het geval dat het plastic qua afmeting kleiner wordt naarmate men verder uit de kust gaat kijken. Onze focus ligt voornamelijk op de grotere stukken plastic, dus in combinatie met de vorige vraag kunnen de hotspots worden vastgelegd rond de uitmondingen van rivieren en havens en langs de kustlijn van drukbezochte stranden.

5. Aan welke orde van grootte moeten we denken bij de hoeveelheid plastic afval die in de Noordzee drijft, heeft u hier precieze cijfers van?

Wat betreft de bodemvervuiling van de Noordzee spreken we over 110 stukken plastic per km² in de Noordzee. De vervuiling langs de kustlijn bedraagt 380 stukken afval per 100 meter strand.

6. Op welke dieptes bevindt het plastic afval zich voornamelijk?

De grootste concentratie afval is rond of op het oppervlakte. Er is gemeten tot op een diepte van 5 meter en hieruit bleek dat 80% van het afval zich bevond in de eerst 2-3 meter.

7. Zijn er vergelijkbare projecten zoals deze en zo ja, wat houden deze in?

Een vergelijkbaar project is de ocean clean up. Het idee is dat op grote schaal afval uit de North pacific gyre gehaald wordt met behulp van 2 lange armen. Echter is dit project op een veel grotere schaal met hogere concentratie afval per km^2 dus niet echt toepasbaar op ons probleem.

Een ander project is opgezet door waternet. Het heeft een autonome robot gemaakt die heel erg op onze robot lijkt en door het water vaart en afval op een loopband met zich meeneemt.

Een ander vergelijkbaar project is opgezet door de recycled Island foundation. ze maken een soort vallen en plaatsen deze aan de kust van Rotterdam op strategische plekken en vangen op die manier plastic op.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYXlv8fgj80&feature=youtu.be

Requirements and inspirations

Requirements: The robot needs a container were it can store retrieved plastic. The measurements of this container is a width of 0.8 meters. A length of 0.8 meters and a height of 1,5 meters. The container needs to be able to be taken out of the whole boat easily. This can be done with handles at the top sides. By making clips that hold the container in the boat, it cannot move when it is operating. However when it has to be taken out of the boat it should be easily loosened with those clips. It also means that when the container is full it should know that it has to go to a point where it can empty itself. This can be done for example by a sensor that sees, that when the plastic is higher than a certain point it should empty itself.

An agent needs to retrieve plastic by using a net. The net is attached to a rotating engine. This way it can fish the plastic out of the sea and put it in the container. This can be seen at the picture below. This is only a picture to be used for the net idea itself. The boat itself is not looking like this at all. We want to have a net that has holes in it that are 1,5 cm by 1,5 cm. This way not all the plastic falls out of the net, through the holes itself. The net should be also 1.5 meters wide and with a length of 0.8 meters.

An agent needs to be able clear the whole area, and to be able to know which parts of the area it has covered. Therefore it needs understanding of the currents as well. The currents go with a speed of around 4 km/h which is 1,11 m/s. A GPS is used for knowing where it has been. The robot needs two motors, so it can steer and move forward. The motors have to be powerful enough so the agent can reach the desired maximum speed of 2.5 m/s.

-The agent needs to have a width of 2 meters

-The agent needs to have a length of 2 meters

-The agent needs to have a height of 1,5 meters

The robot needs an ultrasound sensor on the front of the agent. This way it can look how far a unit of plastic is and this way it will know when to reel in the plastic units. The robot needs GPS. This way it can see where it has been, where it should go and when it is connected with other agents, they also know where the other robot has been and is going. The robot needs to be able to be able to be controlled manually, when it is required too. For example, when the weather gets extreme and the waves get very high, so it will be dangerous the unit should be able to be steered back manually to a safe place. An agent needs a battery life of (dependent of the area covered per robot. It would be a preference to have it fully powered by solar energy) It needs a speed of more than 4 km/h. The current of the sea can be at the most 4 km/h so that means that if we want to make speed in those parts of the ocean, it has to go faster than that. 4km/h is about 1.11 m/s. If we want a decent speed at which we can pick up plastic, the robot has to go at least 2,5 m/s.

http://www.catamaranschool.nl/stromingengetijden.html

Its lifetime has to be 10 years. When an agent is build, it should be able to operate for quite some time and not break after a few years already. An agent needs to be multi-hulled. One left of the container and one right of the container. It will look a bit like a catamaran. In the middle is the container and in front of that is the fishing net. On the back of each hull there is a motor. This way it can steer just like a tank with caterpillar tracks can do it. If it wants to go right, it just turns on the left motor.

Inspirations"

Preference: The solar voyager is a solar powered boat that is currently being tested. It’s currently crossing the Atlantic Ocean. This project can server as inspiration to make our robots fully solar powered. http://www.solar-voyager.com/index.html

Roboat:

Roboat is the world’s first large-scale research that explores and tests the rich set of possibilities for autonomous systems on water. “Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people,” says Carlo Ratti, Professor at MIT and principal investigator in the Roboat-program. “Roboat offers enormous possibilities,” says Professor Arjan van Timmeren, AMS Institute’s Scientific Director, “as we’ll also be exploring environmental sensing. We could for instance do further research on underwater robots that can detect diseases at an early stage or use Roboats to rid the canals from floating waste and find a more efficient way to handle the 12,000 bicycles that end up in the city’s canals each year.” The first prototypes of Roboat will be visible in the waters of Amsterdam in 2017. Roboat: research on world’s first autonomous fleet for moving people, moving goods, dynamic infrastructure and environmental sensing.

http://www.ams-institute.org/roboat/

Sea Machines builds Autonomous Control & Remote Command Systems to enhance the operation of existing or new build marine vessels.

http://sea-machines.com/#technology