Robots Look to Take on Education and Environmental Pollution Challenges

No matter what beach or waterfront you visit, more than likely you will find some litter or trash in the area. According to a 2017 report from the Ocean Conservancy Organization, over 500,000 people have collected over 18-million pounds of waste on beaches all over the globe, and that isn’t even counting the Texas-sized trash island floating in the Pacific. Suffice it to say; it’s a problem and one that won’t go away very quickly.

To help get a leg up on all this garbage, Robot Missions founder Erin Kennedy decided to build robots that could help do the work, not by picking up large pieces of refuse but rather the smaller parts, such as bits of plastic, cigarette butts, and other debris. The idea behind Robot Missions is to deploy low-cost robots for environmental applications to help reduce pollution on beaches and parks while at the same time educating the public about STEM through community involvement.

Kennedy’s low-cost robots dubbed ‘Bowies’ (currently at three but soon to be four) are all 3D-printed units that look similar to NASA’s rovers but are designed to use different attachments to pick up litter. Beyond the 3D-printed frame, each frontal scoop attachment is driven by a series of servos it uses to pick up the trash and dump it into an onboard hopper.Four AWD tires provide the robot with traction on varied terrains, while a front-mounted camera and LEDs help the pilot navigate remotely through any obstacles in its path.

As far as the electronics are concerned, Bowie is outfitted with a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller along with an accelerator, ultrasonic sensors, altimeter, Bluetooth module, 10 DOF board, and an XBee Series 2 radio with antenna, all powered by a pair of Turnigy 5000mAh Li-Po batteries.

While the robots could become at least partially autonomous in the future, controlling the robots at this point is done through the use of a 3D-printed handheld controller (in person) or remotely using an app. The controller itself features six buttons, a joystick, speaker, 3-potition mode switch, antenna and an OLED screen, all powered by a 5v battery. Piloting the robots remotely is done through a Raspberry Pi command post server and controlled via Wi-Fi using a smartphone, tablet or PC.

Kennedy is on a mission, literally, to bring about Municipal Trials that will educate the public about environmental pollution and the possibilities of management through the use of robotics. People will learn what’s involved with building low-cost robots like Bowie, giving them a STEM-based overview in technology and engineering.

Kennedy is currently crowdfunding the Municipal Trials and Field Test on Kickstarter, which will be held on Westboro Beach in Ontario Canada. Those interested can pledge $25 CAN and up to receive rewards that include controlling the robots remotely to VIP tickets to operate the robots in person with your own 3D-printed controller.