Sustainable Waste Management using batteryless IoT devices

In pakistan and other economically developing countries waste management is a major crisis. Due to the poor system, infrastructure and financial constraints this issue is increasing day by day. To overcome this issue, we are proposing Dynaclean, an IoT based Waste management system. Dynacl

Project Title

Sustainable Waste Management using batteryless IoT devices

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

In pakistan and other economically developing countries waste management is a major crisis. Due to the poor system, infrastructure and financial constraints this issue is increasing day by day. To overcome this issue, we are proposing Dynaclean, an IoT based Waste management system. Dynaclean aims at creating a solid waste transportation system through implementing a maintenance-free, battery-less device on waste bins. These devices will harvest energy dynamically using micro-mechanical mechanism and sense the amount and volume of waste in that particular bin. After sensing, this device will send the data wirelessly to the main centralized system which further processes that data and generates a proper and shortest route for the garbage truck to minimize the fuel cost. As compared to the uber service which is called by a person for travelling, In Dynaclean IoT based waste bins will automatically call the garbage trucks for garbage transportation.
 

Numerous waste management projects were initiated by the local government but were plagued by delays and cost overruns as they were not economically sustainable. As our governmental institutions lack resources and the problem has become so large, it is now beyond the capacity of local municipalities. In such a scenario, our proposed battery-less (maintenance-free) IoT-based waste management system, Dynaclean, provides a very economical and sustainable solution.

Project Objectives

The overall objective of Dynaclean is to build an economically viable waste management system and to demonstrate the scalability and sustainability of battery-free IoT infrastructure. In general, Dynaclean has the following main objectives:

• Make garbage collection operation efficient and smarter.
• Make IoT infrastructure for garbage management maintenance-free (battery-free).
• Stop overflowing of dustbins along roadsides and localities.
• Reduce the overall operational expenditure.

The specific objectives of the current project are as follows:

• To analyze the energy consumption of Microcontroller (MCUs) and radios under different configurations.
• To figure out the amount of energy generated by energy harvesting unit in the dumpster.
• To develop a centralized system based on machine learning algorithms.
• To successfuly communicate between waste bins and the cloud, over the internet..
• To direct the garbage trucks to the shortest and effective path.

Project Implementation Method

The implementation of Dynaclean can be challenging. Some of the challenges that need to be addressed for this project to be completed and obtain the desirable objectives in the mentioned period of time. Firstly, we need to find the robust and energy-efficient hardware that work with the micro-mechanical component to generate the energy dynamically. Preferably these can be some thermo-electric generator (TEG) which generates energy from the heat emitting from the garbage or an induction motor generator which will work with the mechanical up and down movement of the garbage bin lid. Resulting in generating enough energy to operate the MCU, Sensor and wirelessly transfer of data over the Wi-Fi. Secondly to design the software that must be time efficient to operate in the limited energy and time and also works in an energy-savvy manner. Another challenge is that, we need to communicate between the  Microcontroller (MCU) and the gateway, then gateway to the cloud servers over the internet. As we are designing a system like uber, we need to design effective and reliable algorithms at our cloud servers to make it cost saving and profitable for the local municipalities.

Benefits of the Project

Basically, Pakistan generates about 48.5 million tons of solid waste a year, which has been increasing by more than 2 percent annually. Pakistan, like any other developing country, does not have a proper and planned waste management infrastructure. Absence of a proper management system, results in delayed waste collection or it may never get collected, contributing to serious hazards to the environment.

After implementing this project, the following would be the benefits:

• First of all, Picking garbage at proper time ( when waste bin is full or almost full ) will keep that metropolitan area clean. All the health deficiencies, environmental protection deficiencies, and overall health problems will be avoided.
• Optimal routing of the truck in a neighborhood, will collect waste from fully loaded waste bins on time, and deliver it to a nearby disposal site or treatment facility. The truck should avoid covering the same stretch of road twice and should only collect the bins which are full or about to get full. Implementing this approach will reduce the overall operational cost while keeping the environment clean and saving a lot more to the economy annually.
•  A typical metropolitan area will have thousands of bins, all of them will be equipped with the batteryless sensors, reducing the effort and cost of periodically replacing batteries, and maintenance.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

After the completion of the project, final deliverable would be following:

waste bin:  For its basic functionality, waste bin will be equipped with a distance sensor, attached on the ceiling of the bin pointing towards the floor. Each sensor will be equipped with a low-power microcontroller (MCU) and a small-range radio for data transmission. The software will be embedded in the low power MCU to perform its functionality and would work along with other electrical components like capacitors and resistors. In addition to low-power MCU and radio, each sensor also needs to be equipped with micro energy harvester which will scavenge energy from the environment to power the sensor. Alongside energy harvester, we will attach small energy buffer, i.e. a supercapacitor, to store enough energy to execute few instructions without interruption.

gateway:  Each sensor will transmit “percentage fill” value to a nearby gateway through low power radio, i.e., Bluetooth low energy. Gateway will have a slightly more powerful MCU and abundant energy supply, i.e., either through power grid or solar panel. The radio receiver at gateway will have direct access to the internet, i.e., 3G/4G network or Wi-Fi. The gateway will have directly communicate with the cloud-server where Dynaclean machine learning algorithm will run.

cloud:  Cloud is basically a server or a computer which will always be connected with the internet. The final deliverable in this field is cloud-running application which runs the machine learning algorithm. After computing its data through the algorithms cloud will communicate with truck driver to finally collect and transport the garbage.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

IT

Other Industries

Energy , Others , Telecommunication

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI), Cloud Infrastructure, Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com