Autonomous Amphibious Vehicle for Monitoring and Collecting Marine Debris

Our chief objective is to prototype a vehicle that can collect garbage floating on the surface of a water body (lake, pond, river, sea, or ocean) as well as the shorelines and riverbeds, without any major human assistance or more than one person being involved. The collection process of the garbage has automated, i.e. the vehicle will detect the garbage and will make it move accordingly to be picked up by the collection system. The recognition part is done using a deep learning model that detects a selective class of objects. After identifying the trash, it will place itself in line with the object. For the mobility of the boat, twin screw propellers have been used, as shown in Fig. 1, to facilitate smooth movement on land as well as in water. A separate compartment is allocated in the vehicle where all the collected trash is transferred via a conveyor system. An alternative remote control is used for controlling the boat. Since the DL model is not 100% accurate, we have kept remote control as an option that is required in the initial stage of the movement and for the shift between different terrains.