Solar Based Autonomous Ship for Cleaning Garbage & Surveillance

Water pollution with floating garbage is getting more and more serious in many countries. The design of an autonomous ship for cleaning the garbage floating on a lake has been proposed. The ship is powered by a solar battery. Circuit for protection of the excessive charge and discharge of the battery system has been used. Ultrasonic sensors have been equipped to detect the distance between the ship and the bank of the lake. The position and the orientation of the ship can be determined by measuring the distance between the ship and the bank at two successive times, which is used for controlling the running direction of the ship to make the ship autonomously run in an annular zone of a short distance away from the bank. The ship has also been equipped with a system to detect the occurrence of obstacles and to bypass the detected obstacles. Two screw propellers have been installed at the two sides of the ship to drive the ship, which makes the ship change its direction nimbly. A photo-resistance has been used to determine if it is in daytime or nighttime. The ship circulates the lake only one time at nighttime to save power energy. Wireless remote control is also available, which makes the ship user friendly. Experiments have demonstrated the applicability of the design.