Creating the Water Sweeper to Remove Surface Water Waste

 Maximilian Golubowski, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Electrical Engineering and minor in Mathematics 

My senior capstone project is titled The Water Sweeper. This project is about a semi-autonomous boat used to remove waste from the surface of the water. This boat has two functions: 1) the operator mode where a user can control the boat by themselves to collect the waste, and 2) the camera mode where the boat will detect the waste and go to its base on what the camera can detect. Besides these two modes, this project was created to make a cheaper drone to explore machine learning and computer vision, to make a small contribution to climate change, and to delve into drones.

Many parts were required to physically construct the Water Sweeper. To make the boat itself, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes were used as the base due to their low cost and their being used in a variety of water applications like plumbing and water-based drones. Besides the base of the boat, detachable nets were used on the back of the boat to gather waste and to replace these nets easily. To move the boat, a variety of components were used. The component that mainly moved the boats were underwater thrusters in which two were needed to move the thrusters in opposite directions. One thruster has to be clockwise and the other one has to be counterclockwise to make the thrusters move in opposite directions. These thrusters contained brushless motors (BLDC) which fit the application due to being highly efficient, producing less heat, being a light component, and having a longer lifespan than the brushed motor. These motors are often used in boats due to having no sensors and being able to resist water damage for an extended time.  

Although the thruster is an important component, there are more components needed to power them and send them the required signals to function properly. One of these components is the electronic speed control (ESC) which is used to calibrate and control the speed of thrusters. Setting the speeds of the ESC leads to the thrusters desiring more power to operate. To power, the ESC, a LiPo (lithium polymer) battery is necessary as it can supply the power needed for the thrusters to work. To send appropriate signals, a microcontroller is needed to communicate the appropriate speed to the thruster. This describes the power systems of the sweeper. This camera is set high on the boat so it can see where the waste is. This describes the physical appearance of the boat.

The Water Sweeper has two modes, the operator and camera modes. The operator mode requires a transmitter and receiver circuit. For the receiver circuit, a microcontroller with a transceiver module was connected to the ESCs, while the transmitter circuit used the same module with components such as a joystick or potentiometer, were used to control the speed of the ESC. This allowed the user to control the boat at farther ranges and avoid mishaps with wires. The camera mode required an artificial intelligence camera to know what waste needed to be collected. To understand what waste needed to be collected, the camera needed a waste library. Once this library was established, the camera was trained to detect them so the boat could gather them. The microcontroller or in this case the receiver circuit was connected to the camera, then programmed for the camera to move the thrusters of the boat and contain the waste.

When working on the project, many obstacles were faced. The first obstacle was learning how to solder properly, since many parts of the project such as the ESC, the print circuit board (pub) receiver and transmitter, the thruster, and additional wires needed to be soldered to make the project work. This required some practice to better understand how this circuit connecting method worked. It also required a lot of caution since soldering components require a lot of heat so getting burned is possible if you are being reckless.

The second obstacle was learning a new microcontroller, Arduino Uno, and the pro mini, since they have various pins for different operations, require a certain amount of voltage and current to work, and need different drivers as well. Understanding the Arduino IDE (integrated development environment) was necessary so the microcontroller could be programmed using C++ computer language.

The third obstacle faced was the transceiver module, nRF24L01, since it is a sensitive device that requires a certain amount of current and voltage to operate and needs external altercations to make the device work. The device requires a lot of debugging to ensure that the software and hardware configurations are accurate. Overall, these were some of the notable hardships faced throughout the project.

There are many aspects of the project that could be further developed. One of these aspects is the transceiver module. There could be methods to further enhance their communication, although this module is tricky to debug. Another way to further enhance the project is to use a microprocessor since it will allow the user to control the boat via a personal computer or laptop.

Another way to enhance the project is to create a solar panel system meant to charge the batteries but not power the boat. Homemade thrusters could be made but aspects of the brushless motor, the propeller, and waterproofing would need to be considered. Changing the thrusters would change the power system, but it could help it last for a longer amount of time. Additional aspects that could be applied to the boat are water quality sensors, underwater cameras, and improvement of the route planning algorithm.