Reef Route

ReefRoute is an application that boaters can use to help them saflty navigate around reefs to reach their desired location.

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What inspired us

The Inspiration for Reef Route is to help prevent damage to our local coral reefs by helping boaters safely navigate these unseen, but delicate ecosystems. We wanted to make a project where the idea could make an impact in the real world and help boaters better plan their routes and traverse them to their desired locations.

What it does

Reef Route allows the user to select a starting point and a desired destination. The application then plots the shortest path to the destination that avoids land, restricted/protected waters, and of course, coral reefs. The user can then simulate their boat traversing the path. The biggest goal of the application is to provide boaters with a tool for better planning and raise awareness of our beautiful Florida coral reefs.

How we built it

This application was built using Node.JS and Javascript. Gemini was a tool that was heavy used to assist in code generation and debugging. We implemented many parts of the react-leaflet library for building the maps in out application. The application then uses a grid system and longitude and latitude coordinates to collect a start and end location from the user. We then implemented an A-star algorithm (treating the map like a grid) to efficiently preform the path finding from point A to point B while avoiding obstacles. Which uses Dijkstra's algorithm to look at the distance that has been traveled at any given point and a Greedy-best-first-search to estimate how much distance is left to reach the goal. The path is then displayed over the map to the user, where the user can then choose to play the simulation of the boat traversing the route. Everything was written in JavaScript in order to keep the tech stack simple.

Challenges we ran into

A challenge we faced was getting the animation to work properly as well as balancing the grid square size for accuracy and computational efficiency. If each grid was too small too many calculations would be preformed during the A-star algorithm and the application would be very slow, but if they were too big we would loose accuracy and the path would clip through the edges of obstacles go around them by a large margin them and choose a less efficient path than was possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of what we were able to accomplish with the time we were given. We are also particularly proud of our implementation of the A-star algorithm in JavaScript. Most of all we are proud of ourselves for working together to lean new things and build a cool project.

What we learned

We learned how to use the react-leaflet library in JavaScript to generate and place polygons on the map to designate obstacles. This was a tool that no one on the team had any experience with. We also all learned more about Node.JS and JavaScript development best practices, such as: npm can be very dangerous since it has a lot of compromised and malware containing packages. So, we learned to containerize Node.JS in a docker Dev-container to protect our computers from potential infection, and provide a consistent development environment across all of our computers.

What's next for Reef Route

The next features we would like to add to Reef Route would be to add full deployment that would allow users to accsses it online. We would alos like to expand our map data to be able to assist with boat navigation on a global scale instead of just for Florida.
We would also like to allow users to uploal information to a Reef Route server where the update information could be considered to be added to tha application. We could then add the user data to the set to further map and enhance our application. This could possibly even allow more up to date maps and markers then using an automated system that relies on stored data to be updated. It would allow every user to interact with the application and contribute to it and breath life into it allowing it to adapt and grow as fast as our beautiful Earth does.

Tech Stack

  • JavaScript
  • Node.js
  • Google Gemini
  • VS-Code
  • React-leaflet
  • React
  • Vite
  • Docker
  • Git
  • GitHub

Submission categories:

- Full Sail: Pathways & Perception, A Serious Games & Simulation Challenge
- OneEthos: Innovation for Good

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