SMART WASTE COLLECTING HOPPER (SWaCH)

PROJECT REFERENCE NO: 38S0113

COLLEGE

: M S RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

BRANCH

: COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

GUIDE

: PROF.SANJEETHA R

STUDENTS : MR. VIVIN T WILSON

MR. SIDHARTHPANICKER
MR. MADHU VENKATESH
MR. SNEHA G BHAT
Keywords: Arduino, Raspberry pi, waste collector, waste dispenser, IoT
1. INTRODUCTION
Indias garbage generation stands at 0.2 to 0.6 kilograms of garbage per head per day. One of
the major issues in urban areas is waste disposal. The task of waste disposal is very repetitive,
unhygienic and dependent on human labour. The countrys per capita wastegeneration is so
high, that it creates a crisis if the garbage collector doesnt visit a neighbourhood for a couple
of days. Lack of timely waste collection results in a huge pile ofgarbage in the city which in
turn leads to an unhygienic environment.
This prevailing scenario compels the existence of a feasible substitute that can resolve the
shortcomings of the current methodology of waste collection. The quest for such an
alternative lead to the idea of SWaCH.
2. OBJECTIVES
The objective of the project is to build an autonomous robot which collects waste from
predefined locations (say different shops in a mall, bed-to-bed in a hospital, house-to-house
in a gated community) at the scheduled time, and helps in its disposal, thereby reducing
human effort and labour cost.
3. METHODOLOGY
The SWaCH system mainly consists of a metal chassis that holds the entire system together.
It also consists of the Arduino Mega microcontroller board to control the various sensors and
actuators. The Raspberry pi board is used as the brain of the system controlling the Arduino
through serial communication enabled through the USB port.
In order to save power when SWaCH is not running, the Arduino is powered off by using a
relay.

Figuree 1: Power Circuit

C
of th
he SWaCH system
The SW
WaCH systtem is turnned on rem
motely by a server. A user-frienndly web portal
p
is
provideed, with a unique
u
loginn for every user. The user
u can sellect his/her preferred time
t
slot
during which
w
to avvail the servvices of the system. Baased on the timings
t
set,, the server will use
a protoccol to comm
municate thee route to bee taken to th
he Raspberrry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi is
i the brain of SWaCH
H, and contro
ols the Arduuino, whichh is like the nervous
system. The data received byy the Pi is formulated
d into comm
mands, and is then sen
nt to the
Arduinoo, when asked for. Coonnected too the Arduiino, are sennsors and aactuators. At
A every
checkpooint that SW
WaCH reachhes, the Ardduino comm
municates with
w the Rasspberry Pi, in order
to receiive commannds as to whhat action to
t take nextt.Once wastte collectionn from all specified
s
users is done, SWaaCH returnss back to its home posittion.
H is armed with an obstacle
o
avooidance meechanism. It has the aability to detect
d
an
SWaCH
obstaclee and awaitt path clearrance. In caases of statiionary obstaacles, the roobot takes a detour
around the obstaclle and reloccates its paath. Also eq
quipped witth it is a bbuzzer, to notify
n
its
arrival to a user who
w has reequested forr service. The
T robot sounds
s
the buzzer for a fixed
w
for the user. In
I the even
nt that the user fails to arrive, SWaCH
durationn, while waiting
continuues on its jouurney.
4. RESULTS & CONCLUSI
C
IONS
SWaCH
H is a smartt robot that provides
p
tim
mely, autom
matic waste collection. T
The web po
ortal that
is proviided with thhe service ennsures that it ishighly user
u friendlyy and caterss to all of th
he users
needs. The map provided
p
onn the portal tells the user
u
the whhere abouts of SWaCH
H at any
w
keepss the user innformed abooutits arrivaal time. Thee feature of a dispenserr adds to
point, which
the connvenience, as
a the user need
n
only trransfer the waste
w
to thee dispenser,, the rest is handled
by SWaCH.The auto-calibrat
a
te function helps the system woork in envirronments of varied
lightingg before evvery run. The
T ability of the systtem to deteect obstaclees and avo
oid them
impartss a sense off awareness to the system, furtherr adding to its reliabilitty. The pressence of

lids thaat cover thee dustbin toop help maintain hygieene and a cleanliness iin its surrou
undings.
The pinng sensor that
t
waits for
f one waave to open
n the lid annd another to close it,, further
enhancees the user interactivity
i
y of the systtem. The ad
dmin login is
i provided to handle any
a hitch
the roboot runs intoo. Every sinngle componnent of SW
WaCH can bee individuallly tested.W
When the
task of waste colleection is to be
b performeed repetitiveely for a larrge numberr ofhouses, stores
s
in
w be a coost- effectivve and timee-saving
a mall or bed after bed at a hospital, SWaCH will
alternattive to humaan labour.

Figure 2:
2 The colleector mountted on the roobot Figurre 3: Dispennser installeed outside houses
h

Figure 4:
4 Sign In on
o Web Porttal

Figure 5: User Profi

file Page on Web Portall

5. SCO
OPE FOR FUTURE
F
W
WORK
A possiible upgradee would be using NFC tags to create a path for
f navigatioon, rather th
han linefollowinng. Also, to enable floor-to-flooor navigatiion, transm
mitter-receivver commu
unication
betweenn the robot and lift couuld be used.. Load and level
l
sensorrs could be added supp
plements
to detecct the load collected. To
T enhance the usabilitty, dry and wet waste segregation
n can be
employyed in futuree. An additioonal smart feature
f
wou
uld be the abbility to autoo-charge.

An improvised and technically more advanced version of SWaCH can be designed to collect
harmful waste from nuclear and chemical plants. This would be a safer alternative over
existing methods that involve humans in harmful waste collection. Besides being a time
saving alternative, it would be a secure resource to employ. For SWaCH to be enhanced, it
should be redesigned. The body will have to be made of lead, as it doesnt let nuclear
radiations to pass through. The system however cannot be retrieved after usage, due to
presence of harmful radiation. In massive industries, where large number of components must
be transferred across workstations, SWaCH can be redesigned and employed. In these
scenarios, the task is rather repetitive and dependent on human labour which will slow down
the task. SWaCH must go through considerable redesign and enhancement of parts to cope
with the scale and can then be applied in such scenarios.