A floating waste scooper robot on water surface

摘要

In developing countries, cleaning water surface is a routine task. Collecting large amount of dry waste floating such as plastic bottles confronts with tension on water surface and small drag force causes waste floating away. The aim of this research is to design a robot that replaces human force for floating waste scooping and investigate performance of the designed waste scoopers installed on the Floating Waste Scooper Robot. The robot mechanism design, waste scoopers, and control are presented. The robot has been successfully tested on calm water surface. Experiments were conducted on a pond and results show influence of varying the robot driving speed and conveyor belt speed on waste scooping. The capability of the different designed scoopers is evaluated and weight of plastic bottles collected by human using scoop net is also compared with that of the robot.