Here’s a pinch of salt

Annually, approximately 1.2 million tonnes of cigarette butts are produced and most of them end up in the ocean. This is due to their small size as they bypass the rubbish filters easily and will escape into the ocean if people are unaware of the situation.

The filters are made of plastic fibers and do not degrade easily. Toxic chemicals trapped in the filters – such as arsenic, chromium, nickel, and cadmium – leak into the soil, rivers and the ocean. Their numbers in the ecosystem are so vast it is nearly impossible to truly recover them back due to their small size.

My team and I decided to build a robot, even though indirectly solving the problem, we decided to kickstart this project as a message to all our friends and people around the world to spread the awareness.

The team

Photo: Top left (Khee Siang Pey), Middle Left (Hishan Parry), Bottom Left (Chia Tze Hank), Right (Frederick Wong Kui Siung)

This project was initiated to participate in IET Global Challenge GreenSeas 2018/2019, its primary goal is to create a remotely controlled all-terrain machine that is capable of moving up and down the beach for a reasonable amount of time, picking up cigarette butts from the surface of the sand and collecting them in a chamber or hopper. The hopper will need to be large enough to collect a good amount as it would be manually emptied when full.

Product Features

• Capable of filtering sand from cigarettes
  It has a sieve at the end of its body to store cigarettes and filter out the sand. The operator can control the robot to shake out any other minor particles caught in the sieve as well.
• The robot is a hybrid
  Solar-powered with a battery to store the solar energy, the robot is configured to be able to work even during the night.
• A remote-controlled robot with a sharable app
  Users are able to use an app we made ourselves using MIT App Inventor to control the robot and pick up cigarettes on the beach.
  
• Maneuver with track wheels
  Due to the shape-shifting landscape of a beach, track wheels similar to a tank is used so the robot does not get stuck in the terrain.
  

Technical Considerations

• Power
  To collect cigarettes at such a large scale, the solar panels are configured to give out a voltage source of 6.7V, and a Seed Studio solar shield is used to regulate the power such that it is able to store into the battery for energy storage. The batteries are capable of storing up to 3900 mAh and can provide a voltage source of 11.1V and 1.0A approximately.
  Seed Studio Solar Charger Shield
  
• Torque
  Using G15 servos by Cytron Technologies, they are capable of providing a maximum torque of 15 kg-cm and can be configured to Wheel Mode with 63 RPM freeload.
  G15 Servo Shield 
  G15 Servo Reference 
  
• Body
  Using SolidWorks, we created a 3D model of the entire robot to simulate the body structure so that it does not break easily under its operating environment. The parts are then 3D printed out with PLA.
  

Final Product