SWaCH

Inspiration-India's garbage 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 country's per capita waste generation is so high, that it creates a crisis if the garbage collector doesn't visit a neighbourhood for a couple of days. Lack of timely waste collection results in a huge pile of garbage in the city which in turn leads to unhygienic environment.

SWaCH (Smart Waste Collecting Hopper) is an automated waste collecting system used to minimize the effort involved in waste collection. It will travel from place-to-place (like bed-to-bed in hospitals, or shop-to-shop in malls) using basic line-following technique. The system will be turned on remotely by a server. A user-friendly web portal will be at the disposal of every user who has a login. There will be a provision for every authenticated user to set a time during which to avail the services of the system. Based on the set timings, the server will use a protocol to communicate the route to be taken, to the robot. The Raspberry Pi will be the brain of SWaCH, while the Arduino will be its heart. Connected to the Arduino are peripherals that either sense the environment or bring about necessary actuation. At every point that SWaCH reaches, it communicates with the Raspberry Pi, in order to receive commands as to what action to take next. Once waste collection from all desired users is done, it returns back to its home position. SWaCH will have other features like an obstacle avoidance mechanism, automatic dispenser, buzzer as a reminder for the user.

Connecting to a particular router in the presence of other WiFi hotspots, Hardware circuitry proved to be challenging.

Designing and installing a dispenser for further ease of garbage collection process is an accomplishment we are proud of.

Working on an internet-of-things application, which involved having to manage various modules are few among the various things we learned.

Addition of load or level sensor, replacing line following with NFC tags, self-charging, segregation of wet and dry waste, will be the next steps for SWaCH to take.