2019 6th IEEE International Conference on Engineering Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICETAS)
Radio Controlled Beach Cleaning Bot
Amina Amin Hussain Boghani
Nasreen Bano
Department of Computer Sciences Department of Mechatronics
Department of Mechatronics
DIHE Engineering
Engineering
Karachi, Pakistan SZABIST
SZABIST
aminaamin@dadabhoy.edu.pk Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi, Pakistan
hussainboghani@gmail.com
nasreen.bano@szabist.edu.pk
Saba Bakhtawar Illyas Waggan
Hiba Tariq
Department of Mechatronics Department of Mechatronics
Department of Mechatronics
Engineering Engineering
Engineering
SZABIST SZABIST
SZABIST
Karachi, Pakistan Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi, Pakistan
saba.bakhtawar987@gmail.com illyaswaggan@gmail.com
hiba_tariq4@gmail.com
Tanzila Younas
Department of Mechatronics
Engineering
SZABIST
Karachi, Sindh
tanzila@szabist.edu.pk
Abstract— the pollution, now a days occurring on beaches, in the cost. This robot can move with the velocity of 0.5 m/s.
is increasing day by day due to some scathing events taking The power supplied from a 12V 30Ah battery is connected to
place such as flood or solid litter left behind by the public. This 40W solar cell. It is not used to separating out tiny debris.
litter, when present in a large quantity of small pieces, appears
to be more hazardous for the animals, both inside and outside
of the water. Cleaning this litter requires a large no. of labors
that add to the cost. To overcome this obstacle, there have been
many systems designed on a larger scale, each differing in
quantity and type of litter as well as the structure. A system
that can work efficiently in coastal environment and is cost
effective, reducing human effort and wastage of time, is still the
need of the present day. Our project is one suitable method to
reticulate this issue. The prototype of RC beach cleaning bot is
designed and fabricated for this purpose. It comprises of
filtration mechanism and driving mechanism. The filtration Fig. 1. Side view of garbage collection robot [4].
mechanism consists of a system used for the separation of sand
and litter of small size (i.e. plastic pieces, glass pieces, cans,
cigarette butts etc.) using vibration mechanism. Whereas, the B. Beach Cleaning Trailer:
driving mechanism remotely controls the motion of the robot The beach cleaning trailer uses a conveyor belt to transfer
via Bluetooth module that will send and receive signals with trash into the shaking tray and then collect it in the trash bin.
the help of a transceiver. This type of system works The shaking tray is used to extract associated trash from the
significantly for the environment in best economic way. sand. It is less sophisticated in functioning as it uses a
hydraulic system for controlling and actuation purposes.
Keywords— Pollution, beaches, solid litter, hazardous, beach
cleaning bot.
I. INTRODUCTION
The environmental pollution is increasing rapidly
now a days and one of the major contribution to this is poor
condition of beaches. Where beaches on one hand add
beauty to the countries, are steadily becoming sources of
exploiting this natural beauty and negatively affecting the
country [1-3]. To overcome this issue swiftly and in an
economic manner, many beach cleaning systems were
designed previously. Some of these systems were designed
and fabricated on a larger while some on small scale,
including systems that require human effort to drive them
along the way. These are described below:
A. Garbage Collection Robot:
This robot, as the name suggests, is a garbage-collecting
robot on beaches. It operates using a wireless connection. It
also has an IP camera with an Ad-hoc system, which adds up Fig. 2. Beach Cleaning Trailer [5].
978-1-7281-4082-7 /19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
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C. HS-GreenFist - Beach Cleaner Robot: E. Modular Robot as a Beach Cleaner:
The robot that designed is capable to navigate on This robot is designed with a high degree of
the beach and collect cans found in its surrounding. Its robustness and has features of trash collecting system, with
structure is fabricated using cheap materials i.e. steel, the help of its excavator like claw, a closed loop motor
medium density fibre and acrylic, to meet the objective of speed control system and a computer vision system, to
making it light weight as well as cost effective. However, detect and avoid obstacles. It uses 3mm thick aluminium
this can affect its durability. The design includes an arm, plate to form a robust system. A storage compartment
that allows the robot to pick up the cans, and a ramp that collects all the trash separated. However, this robot is
manages to drop them into the container. The movements of constrained to collect only cans and object similar to them,
the arm and ramp are carried out by mean of servomotors. leaving around small trash.
Kinect is also used to measure the depth. Above all features
it have, it is not able to collect small trash such as, cigarette
butts and plastic pieces, which are critical to marine life.
Fig. 5. Modular beach cleaner [8].
F. Hirottaro:
This prototype is an autonomous system and works
with the refuse collection mechanism. It is based on the
Fig. 3. HS-GreenFist- beach cleaner [6].
action of a broom and a dustpan. A navigation system is
involved in it, which is used to calculate the exact position
and orientation of the robot. It is bigger in size and weight is
D. Prometeo – Beach Cleaner Robot: 220kg. It travels with a velocity of 0.65m/s. To operate on
Its objective is similar to that of the HS-Green Fist uneven sand a terrain, a brush is used which remains in
beach cleaning robot but operates with a different contact with sandy terrains during its operation. The system
mechanical structure. It has an excavator arm that is is autonomous but at the same time is technically sensitive
designed in a way that it even carries out cans that half due to its increased components.
buried in the sand. To achieve a specific height in
accordance with the excavator, a chain mechanism
(differential wheeled) is used for its movement. A system is
slightly complex because a 3D camera is implemented, with
its algorithm, to achieve desired distance and position.
Fig. 6. Hirattaro beach cleaner [9].
One prime issue with these smaller versions is that they are
not capable of collecting small debris from the beach sand,
which are a major threat to animals. To design a radio-
Fig. 4. Prometeo- Beach cleaner [7]. controlled robot, which has similar working features as that
of an autonomous robot with more efficiency, is itself a
challenging task. Our main aim is to work on and provide a
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system that not only is economic compared to other systems III. RADIO CONTROLLED BEACH CLEANING BOT
being used for the same purpose but also is capable of
filtering out sand from small litter found on beach sand. In
addition to that, it is also important to get maximum
productivity out of it.
II. IMPORTANCE OF BEACH CLEANING SYSTEM
From recent studies, it is shown that the pollution that occur
on beaches is restricted to local area and can take place due
to the disturbance to wastewater collection or handling of
infrastructure affected due to some critical events such as
illegal dumping, floods or solid litter left behind by public.
Materials like rubber, plastic, metal or foam are brittle
enough i.e. hardly breakable, and are menacing to the life of
animals, especially the marine animals. This kind of litter
and trash becomes more savage when it is present in the
form of small pieces. When small or big animals intake it,
some get drown from attachment while others are clogged
up by plastic rings. The deposits of this litter increase with
every curling sea wave that breaks on the shore. This
problem will continue to stand on its way if ignored, since it
is a never-ending process. Since a lot of us eat seafood, so if
the fish that we eat consumes that plastic piece then we are Fig. 7. Workflow diagram of RC beach cleaning bot.
consuming that piece too [1]. This problem not only
endangers marine life but also creates a negative impact To implement accordingly, beach cleaning bot was divided
upon tourism by destroying the natural beauty of the into parts, hardware and software. Hardware part is
beaches. To eliminate this issue, a lot of machines and comprised of mechanical structure, which was further
robots were designed previously but all of them work on a divided into two categories, one is filtration segment, which
large scale and require extra labor expenses as well. Some consists of filtration mechanism, and the other is the driving
of them were made on a small scale but are not capable of segment, which provides driving force to the bot as it
removing small debris and trash that is covered by heavy contains driving mechanism in it. Whereas software part is
layer of sand. The thought of designing this project is of an comprised of CAD design and programming of the beach
innovation or invention of a radio-controlled system that cleaning bot. The hardware is designed in a way that the bot
contributes to the country’s betterment and is the need of the will be capable of cleaning the sandy surface using its
present day. This radio-controlled beach cleaning bot will filtration mechanism and the driving mechanism will power
not only add to the country’s growth in the field of it to simultaneously move with a continuous motion in a
technology but will also eliminate an inefficient and a long- straight line on that surface. Below described is the filtration
term way of cleaning beaches i.e. by gathering number of segment and the driving segment of the beach cleaning bot.
people for the collection of small debris from coastal areas A. Filtration Segment
of the country, which is the major issue that is increasing
Filtration segment of the bot comprises of the
day by day due to the lack of facilities and equipment [10-
filtration mechanism. This mechanism is similar to the four
16].
bar mechanism. It has a motor that rotates and a connecting
bar linked to the motor, followed by a system that filters out
sand by oscillating. This mechanism is structured with an
iron frame to make it strong enough to bear the mechanical
load easily on it. Below discussed are all the components
that contribute in completion of this segment:
a) Frame: The structure of the filtration segment
consists of an iron frame of 20 x 15in that holds all
the other parts of the filtration segment in it. The
iron metal chosen to construct the frame is due to
the reason that iron serves the robust as well as less
costly material as compared to aluminium and
steel.
b) Plough Arm: A sand is ploughed up on the sieve by
a plough arm. A plough arm consists of metal alloy
sheet of size 3.5 x 3.5in. The arm of 17in in length
that is joined to the frame at an angle of 30° from
the ground. This angle is set to get the maximum
sand ploughed out of the ground.
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c) Motor: The filtration mechanism uses a 24V DC
geared motor as a rotating body, which provides
high torque and speed. It is connected with the
shaft in a way that it tends the shaft to move in
back and forth motion and that is how the
mechanism produce vibrations.
d) Shaft: A shaft of length 20in in is the part of
filtration mechanism. It is connected to the sieve in
a way that it acts as a transmitter of an oscillatory
motion to the sieve.
e) Sieve: One of the major part of the filtration
mechanism is the sieve, which is designed and
manufactured using a net and a frame of metal
alloy of size 17 x 15in. For the purpose of the sieve
to separate sand from small debris or litter
ploughed from the surface properly, it contains a
wire mesh of size 0.65, much smaller than the size Fig. 9. Side view of driving segment of the bot.
of a bottle cap. The plough arm attaches with the
sieve at an angle of 30° to transfer all the ploughed
sand on it. The frame of the sieve makes it robust
enough to withstand the force with which it moves
in back and forth motion to filter out the sand and
prevent the wire mesh from getting bended.
f) Trash Storage Container: On the backside of the
frame is attached the storage container of size 20 x
6in. The storage container stores in it all the
remaining small debris and litter collected on the
surface of the sieve, separated from the sand. The
storage container is 7in in height; therefore, it can
store a limited amount of trash in it.
Fig. 8. Front view of filtration segment of the bot.
B. Driving Segment
This segment serves as the driving force of the
project. It consists of the components that will drive the bot
through, ensuring proper functioning of all the mechanisms
at the same time.
In the driving segment of this bot is installed a
driving mechanism that include motors with gearboxes that
are joined with the tires to increase the torque, a relay based Fig. 10. Flowchart of driving mechanism.
motor driver circuitry that provides more power to the tires,
batteries that provides power to both the mechanism and last To power up both filtering mechanism and driving
but not the least Arduino module that functions the bot. The mechanism we have used a combination of Li-Po batteries,
mechanism is structured with iron frame to make it robust which are able to provide current of three Amps.
and metal sheets to provide a cover to it, preventing the
internal body from outer atmosphere.
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IV. WORKING PRINCIPLE
A radio-controlled beach cleaning robot works in a way that
when the user powers on the main switch, the system starts,
enabling the Arduino microcontroller. The remote
controller, which acts as a transmitter to Arduino module, is
programmed in a manner that as it is switched on and gives
command, either forward or reverse, the transmitter sends a
signal to the receiver using radio waves. The receiver then
delivers that signal to Arduino, which then drive the
respective motors. This is how the bot moves and complete
its traveling range of 1km. Now the working of filtration
mechanism, in order clean the sand, is carried out in a way
that as the switch attached to the DC motor gets high, the
motor is operated. This motor tends a link, which connects
with it the motor and the shaft, to rotate. The shaft joined Fig. 12. RC beach cleaning bot in running mode.
with the sieve tends to move the sieve in to and fro motion
(oscillatory motion). The sieve in this way produces
vibratory motion. As the user drives the bot on the sand via
remote controller, the plough arm of the filtration segment
ploughs the sand simultaneously. The ploughed sand is then
moved upwards up to the sieve, which then vibrates in order
to filter out the sand. In this way, the sand falls through the
mesh grid and the remaining litter in moved forward and fall
in the trash storage container. This trash container collects
litter up to 6in of height, which then be emptied easily,
making space for the upcoming litter. Both the processes of
driving and filtering are carried out simultaneously once the
beach cleaning bot is powered on.
Fig. 13. Side view of a beach cleaning bot.
V. CALCULATIONS AND ANALYSIS
To calculate the torque and power of driving and filtration
units motors respectively:
a) Torque of Driving Motor:
Mass of filtration unit = 16kgs
Mass of driving unit = 14kgs
Total mass of the bot = 30kgs
Weight of the bot = W = 30kgs x 9.81m/s2 = 294.3N
Diameter of a tire = D = 6in = 6 x 2.54 = 15.24cm
= 0.1524m
For each tire one motor is used, to calculate the
Fig. 11. CAD design of RC beach cleaning bot. torque of a single motor divide the weight,
F = W/4 = 73.575N
Therefore,
Torque = F × D (1)
= 73.575 x 0.1524
= 11.212N.m
b) Power of Filtration Motor:
Speed = 800rmp
Mass = 1.5kg
Crank radius = r = 1in = 0.0254m
Force = 14.715N
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A radio controlled beach cleaning bot overall worked but [12] Waqar Farooq, Nehal Butt, Sameed Shukat, Nouman Ali Baig,
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“Design and Implementation of Control System for Nuclear Pollution
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[14] Jinyu Zhu, Chunlei Liu, Weixuan Sun, “A Remote Controlled Mobile
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[16] Yusuf Abdullahi Badamasi, “The Working Principle Of An
VII. CONCLUSION Arduino,” in IEEE, Abuja, 2014.
A radio controlled beach cleaning bot, which is designed
with the motive to clean the sandy surface of the beach, is a
good choice for reducing environmental pollution that occur
due to large amount of litter found on the beach. Therefore,
it gives you maximum productivity and consumes sufficient
amount of power. It is easy to handle and less costly that
makes it an efficient robot among others. The main
advantage of using this bot as a beach cleaning system is
that it replaces the need of so many labors to clean the beach
with one single system and a user that remotely controls the
bot, eliminating labor cost and saving time simultaneously.
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