Clean City

Inspiration

Clean city was not created out because we saw a need to help the community. From where we are, we noticed that, dirt is been thrown anywhere, and one the reasons which we knew of and of which was later on backed by our survey showed that most people throw dirt haphazardly because they did not know where thrash receptacles are found. We also recognized that, getting a thrash can to throw dirt is not enough because when it overthrows it becomes a problem, it bcomes unhealthy. Moreso, we saw the need for dirt to be taken from people’s home for those who might not have the time to go out throw dirt or for some reason’s are not available to throw dirt, to request from the app to throw dirt. From here we took the courage to work on this to locate thrash can to users, to give feedback to administrators on the level of thrash can and to make request for dirt pickup available.

What it does

The clean city app is made up of two module, the User and the Admin. The user module With the clean city user app, people will not throw dirt haphazardly since they will be able to find the trash receptacle closest to them. Incase they don’t know the location of the thrash can, there is a google location map which helps them out. Consequently we will have less illegal dumping and this will go a long way to better the health of those around us as well as care for the climate. The Admin moudule The admin app comes to signal the city council when the dirt is at 50, 75 and 100% notwithstanding the can track how full each trash can is and when they react to this, we will not have standing dirt in the environment which will make our city more clean, healthier and it will also profit the climate. With the admin app also comes the possibility to add an agent who will be incharge of collecting thrash on user’s request. The agent will have a google location to the address of the user, to ease his movement.

How we built it

Our solution is both hardware and software. Hardware: 1)Ultrasonic Sensor The ultrasonic sensor is used to measure the level of the trash can and base on the level of the dirt in the trash can, it sent the information to the database 2)NodeMcuEsp8266 NodeMcu Esp8266 which is a type of microcontroller which is used in communicating with firebase over the internet and also acts as the controller of all the systems. 3)jumper Wires The jumper wires help in connecting the whole system. They are also called connecting wires 4)Power source 3V supply which is used to power the system. 5) Trash can Use in collecting the waste . Backend: For Backend we make use of: 1) Sanctum Api Authentication: which provides a featherweight authentication system for SPAs (single page applications), mobile applications, and simple, token based APIs. 2) Spatie Permissions: This package allows you to manage user permissions and roles in a database 3) MySQL: MySQL creates a database for storing and manipulating data, defining the relationship of each table. user for user requests management and user accounts 4)Firestore database : for storage of Trash can locations all over the community. 5)RealTime database: which helps in updating the data from the sensor in real time or dynamically by sending trash levels to the database. Frontend : Flutter: which is a framework for developing cross platform applications . Figma: For the design of the UI Programing language: Dart for the application C++: for the microcontroller NodeMcuEsp8266

Challenges we ran into

We had lots of issues which we could not completely solve but we hope to in the nearest time some of these issues include:

Spatie And Sanctum Error: we had a lot of issues when it came to configuring and using a third spatie library for authentication and role management. Trying several sources and getting similar errors was kind of discouraging, but as every developer, each new error gave us hope. Understanding and writing our own microcontroller was another issue, it seemed so abstract when we thought of using microcontroller and how to connect to cloud, but with the help of senior lecturer at school, we came to understand it and we could then move on connecting it to realtime databases on firestore another very pertinent issue was understanding firebase and realtime databases, that was the first time we actually got to learn that and it poses some challenges at the beginning, good news is, we were able to grab it before the end.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

When it comes to environmental health affecting our health, we can say some people don’t really consider this. One of the things we are proud of is the determination to continue this project, to be able to reach the level we have reached as of now. We are proud of it because we know that if we want to change the world we as individuals need to start that change, there are already health challenges. Our own little effort in reducing this factor especially in Cameroon is important to us. We are also proud of the fact that we have been able to use what we have learnt to apply on an actual real world solution which will go a long way to helping an entire community. Having to collaborate and use several technologies on one solution is also an achievement, despite diversity in knowledge, unifying it to solve a community problem is an achievement we are all proud of.

What we learnt

So far, we have learnt from the conception to the development that we need to encourage ourselves in order to continue. When we look at the rate at which some people appreciate technology and the constraints that we have in a clean city, we need to be courageous to strive forward. When it comes to the development, we have learnt a lot, not everyone was comfortable with the technologies that we used. In fact, we developed the idea and then we checked out what technologies could be used. We learned new stuff, increased our thinking power, learned to code more etc. We learnt that technology can be implemented in so many things especially in our Country. We learnt through an inspiring week that there are chances and possibilities to showcase our work.

What's next for Clean City

The issue of dumping of dirt carelessly is not only in my region (North West Region of Cameroon ) so the clean city team hopes to include other regions and towns in the app so that it will be beneficial for everyone, and also for the city council in my community and the world at large. We also hope to use the user app to sensitize the population about health and environment by some engaging comments or reminders for people to work towards the good of the environment. We also intend to finish all what we have foreseen for our application like the sensitization etc but lack the time to finish it in this particular sprint. We target the company in charge of sanitation to use this solution but we hope to set up a startup that will be fully in charge of waste management.