How to Design a Smart Garbage Monitoring System Using IoT

This project is a smart garbage monitoring system using the Internet of Things (IOT).

We live in an age where tasks and systems are merging with the power of IoT to have more efficient working systems and perform work quickly! With the power at our fingertips, this is the kind of projects we can dream up.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is supposed to be able to transparently and seamlessly integrate a large number of different systems while providing data for millions of people to use and exploit. Therefore, building a common architecture for the IoT is a very complex task, mainly due to the huge variety of devices, link layer technologies and services that may be involved in such a system.

One of our major environmental concerns is solid waste management, which affects the health of our society and the environment. Waste detection, monitoring and management is one of the major issues of our time. The traditional method of manually monitoring the waste in the bins is a tedious process that requires more manpower, time and cost, which can be easily avoided with our current technology.

This is our solution, an automated approach to waste management. IoT garbage monitoring system is an innovative way to help keep cities clean and healthy.

Continue to see how you can make an impact and help clean up your community, home and even your surroundings, bringing us closer to a better way of living

Monitoring System Overview

We were impressed when we observed garbage trucks collecting solid waste around town twice a day. Although the system was implemented thoroughly, it was inefficient. For example, let's say Street A is a busy street and we see that the garbage fills up very quickly, while Street B may not even have its bin half full after two days. This example is something that actually happens, so it leads us to a "Eureka" moment!

What our system does is it provides a real-time indicator of the level of waste in the bin at any given time. Using this data we can optimize waste collection routes and ultimately reduce fuel consumption. It allows waste collectors to plan their daily/weekly collection schedules.

standard

The basic model works like this:

First, you must first enter the height of your bin. This will help us generate the percentage of trash in the bin. Then, we need to meet two criteria to indicate that a specific bin needs to be emptied:

The amount of trash, in other words, if your trash bin is half full, you really don't need to empty it. Our threshold, or the maximum amount of trash we allow, is 75% of the trash bin. (You can change the threshold to your liking.)

If, say, a particular bin is 20% full and then does not change in a week, it moves into our second criteria: time. Over time, even small amounts will begin to decay, causing the surroundings to stink. To avoid this our tolerance is 2 days, so if the bin is less than 75% full but has been used for 2 days, it also needs to be emptied.

electronic product

With these criteria in mind, let’s get to the technical part:

An ultrasonic sensor (aka distance sensor) will be placed on the inner side of the lid, on the side facing the solid waste. As the garbage increases, the distance between the ultrasonic wave and the garbage decreases. These real-time data will be sent to our microcontroller.

Our microcontroller Arduino 101 then processes the data and sends it to the app via WiFi.

What the app does is visually represent the amount of trash in the bin with a small animation.

This process will indicate all bins that require attention, guiding the user to take the most efficient route.

Material

hardware:

Grover Base Shield v2

Arduino 101

9v Batteries (Gearbest) These batteries will power the Arduino board

Plastic Container (Gearbest) I found an old plastic container that all the components can fit into. The box is important because you can access the components easily and it is waterproof.

Ultrasonic Sensor (Gearbest) Ultrasonic sensor measures distance. It will be attached to the lid and indicate the amount of trash. A key component of our system.

Jumper cables (Gearbest)

The Arduino MKR1000 (Amazon) is one of Arduino's newest microcontrollers, and it simplifies the task of connecting to the Internet using downloadable pre-built libraries.

White spray paint turns your regular box into a more professional product

tool:

Electric drill (Gearbest)

Hot glue gun (Gearbest)

software:

Arduino IDE

Blynk is an Android application that allows communication with WiFi compatible microcontrollers.

Build the model

It was time to make our own system to test our concepts on a small scale at home! I found an old small plastic container for this purpose to make sure the components would fit.

Spray paint

We chose white but you can choose any color you like, apply two coats of paint inside and outside, don't forget the cover. NOTE: The fumes from doing it outside are toxic.

Installing the Ultrasonic Sensor

Push the sensor in and apply a small amount of hot glue to hold it in place. Then make a slot for the switch to mount everything in place.

Circuit

Simply mount the Base shield onto the Arduino 101 and connect the ultrasonic sensor to pin D6

shell

Carefully insert all components and close the box

Introduction to Blynk App

To connect to the internet we used a pre-built platform called Blynk which can be downloaded from the android play store, linked below. There are countless examples on how to use the app with Arduino, all available by going to the Files, Examples and Blynk list in the Arduino IDE.

Link to blynk app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cc

Setting up the application and code

To be able to program the Arduino 101, you need to install the required drivers first. To check if you have them installed, open the Arduino IDE, click Tools, then Board and see if you have Arduino or Genuino 101 in the list.

To download the necessary drivers to use the Arduino MKR1000, open the Arduino IDE again, click Tools, Board, then Boards Manager.

Now in the search bar, search for "intel curie board", select your Arduino IDE version and download the one that comes with it

Once the drivers are installed, go ahead and download the required libraries. In order for our program to run, we will need the WiFi101 library, the Blynk library, and the Ultrasonic library, all three of which can be found in Arduino's built-in library manager. Open Sketch and then Include Library, followed by Manage Libraries.

Now in the search bar, search for WiFi101, Blynk and Ultrasonic, select your IDE version and install.

test

Using the Blynk app, we use 3 LEDs to indicate the trash level. Select Arduino 101 as your microcontroller and choose "Connection Type" BLE, not Bluetooth!

You will then receive a mail containing an "Authentication Token" (mentioned in the code) which you need to enter.

result

Here you can see the final result of the whole concept!

These are screenshots from my phone as I filled up the bin. In the Blynk app we line up the three LEDs, one on top of the other. Green goes from 0 to 25% full, Orange goes from 25 to 65%, and Red goes from 65 to 100%

After putting in 10% of the trash and closing the bin, we left the other two green LEDs that were lit off.

50% full.

Finally, after we had thrown away all the garbage, the three LEDs and a smiley face lit up!

Global Positioning System:

important

We haven't actually implemented this yet because we would have to make at least 20 models to fit them around the dumpsters in town. That would have made it too expensive, so we came up with this idea and when simulated randomly it gave us the shortest route, the correct result!

Now comes the time consuming part. We plan to integrate our project with Google Maps.

Here is the implementation process:

You need to manually get the GPS location of each trash bin in the town. Then save it on your google map. Once done, just like we made the system in our model instead of one LED, you need to do the same thing for the number of trash bins, let's say we have 20.

When the truck driver is ready to start his day’s work, he opens Blynk and sees all the dumpsters that need attention, then selects each one (each has a specific number), and then generates the shortest and most efficient route!