Inspiration
Ever since kindergarten, we've all been told the same thing. "One piece of misplaced garbage in the recycling bin can cause the entire bin to be thrown to waste." Some people do not know what bin an object belongs to or do not want to put the effort into putting their garbage in the correct bin. That is why we built a garbage can extensions that takes in any sort of trash, and places it into the correct bin automatically.
What it does
Our product is the bane of garbage's existence. With our product, the days of garbage sneaking into recycling bins will be over! Garbage is tossed onto the platform where a camera is set up above to detect the trash. Using OpenCV and CocoSSD, we determine what kind of object is being disposed of. With this information, an Arduino motor with an arm tilts the garbage on the platform into either the recycling or trash bin.
How we built it
We ran to the Dollar Store and asked the cashier if we can take some cardboard from the back. They said yeah. We used cardboard and popsicle sticks for the structure of the platform, and Arduino linked to an h-bridge linked to a servo motor for the tilting platform. For the detection, we used OpenCV with a CocoSSD database. To keep everything together we used lots of hot glue.
Challenges we ran into
We wanted to get computer vision and hardware working together so it was the first time we ever tried connecting those too. It was quite hard to program since we had to learn an entirely new language to get it working. We also had a lack of resources where we had to make a quick hour trip within a foreign town to urgently buy things in the little time we had left coding.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Learning a new language and venturing out to do a more complicated hardware project was something we were proud of. We're also proud of completing on time and finding a place to sleep.
What we learned
We learned how to use Python, OpenCV, the overall design process, and using Arduino.
What's next for Garbage bAIn
We hope to make the system somehow sort through multiple objects such as in a bag. We also look to making the product adaptable to current garbage and recycling bins so they become commonplace in cities.
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