Smart Buoy | Devpost

Inspiration

The global water pollution problem and the increasing annual drowning cases should not be ignored. We are solving that problem while helping tourism. Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths according to WHO (World Health Organisation). The annual number of drowning cases is 236 000 worldwide. Many of those cases can be prevented with a modern signal system, whether it is safe to go in the open waters.

What it does

The current system consists of flags placed at a close distance of around 50 meters. The flag's colors are different around the world. For example, in Bulgaria, there are three colors: green, yellow, and red. Green - you can swim (no danger), yellow - you are not allowed to go too far in the sea or use inflatables, red - swimming is forbidden.

Although the colors and their exact meaning are different there is one similarity everywhere - the change of the flag is eighter the lifeguard`s responsibility or someone specialized. He needs to receive the data and the process is very slow. We can use led screens to show the color and update it automatically.

Also, we are streaming the data in our web app so everyone can see where it is safe for a swim. That can be really helpful for the tourists in the sea/ocean resorts. Many beaches are 'wild', so they don`t have that kind of system, and those who have it work until 6 pm after that everyone is in danger. "Smart buoy" is there for your safety 24/7.

Water purity is an important segment of our project. In Europe, water purity at the beaches is checked annually in specialized laboratories and that is the factor that makes the water safe for a bath or not. "Smart Buoy" will check the water purity in shorter periods of time.

How we built it

Software

We made a responsive web application with an informational front page and data visualization. The key parts are the beach flag system live visualization created with MapBox API and the Live Data visualization where you can see current information and water purity for every beach with "Smart Buoy" units.

We also created 3D models and visualizations of a prototype of the "Smart Buoy" unit. We use Fusion360, Blender, Unreal Engine, and more.

Hardware

We are going to use one 30W solar panel to collect solar energy and transfer the excess energy to the local electricity system. We will also use swell generated energy, which can be harnessed according to Faraday's law for electromagnetic induction.

For the sensors, we are going to use the BME680 air quality, pressure, and temperature sensor, water purity sensor, and accelerometer and gyroscope for movement detection.

The 3D model will be 3D printed and covered with fiberglass and resin for waterproofness. All of the sensors are going to be placed in the buoy, and the buoy will be moving on its Y axis on a long stick that has a solar panel on the top which helps prevent the buoy to get out of the stick.

The data communication will be realized with the help of a low-power wide area network technology such as LoRaWAN®. The very high physical range of wireless data transfer (7~10 km) is perfect for constructing connected grid with all Smart Buoy units, even the ones in remote areas. Every buoy will relay the information from the others, until the signal finally reaches a receiving station, where the data will be uploaded to the database.

Challenges we ran into

It was hard to imagine and sketch the model in the short time we had but with good coordination, we managed to create results. There wasn`t enough information and the research was hard to be precise.