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Physical Fabrication

Our goal was to create a system that can sort unwanted material out of recycling. Currently workers in recycling facilities are at risk of getting into unsafe environments because of trash bags getting stuck in the machines. To accomplish this goal we designed the EcoSorter, an AI controlled robotic arm that can detect plastic bags and remove them from a conveyer belt. We wanted to build our system out of materials that were cheap and easy to create so this system could be easily be built in many recycling faculties. We created a computer vision algorithm using YOLOv8 (You only look once) and we trained it using a large dataset of labeled images of trash bags. We collected and labeled these images using RoboFlow. Once we trained the model we created a python script to run the model with our web camera. This enabled us to determine the position of each trash bag on the screen, which could then be sent to a system for removal. As the model takes time to detect trash bags, we also estimate their positions while the model is running. Our original plan involved us using a laser pointer which could be used to assist workers but, we eventually decided to build an arm that can push plastic bags of a conveyer while letting other trash go through.

In this Studio, my goal was to comprehend, create, and apply AI algorithms to tackle real-life problems. One of my specific goals was to learn how to create computer vision models to use for AUV which I am working on at beaver. I learned how to create and find datasets and how to use them to train image detection models using Teachable machine, RoboFlow, Yolov8. I also improved my coding ability by debugging problems on the Raspberry pi and creating python scripts with OpenCV. I also explored creating the laser pointer which we scrapped but, I learned how to extract data from the model to send to the Arduino. Overall I went from being not really understanding AI to feeling comfortable creating and training my own algorithms to accomplish a goal. I am excited to keep on using these skills that I learned in future projects such as creating a computer vision system for RoboSub that I will work on once go back to Beaver.