I had a strange obsession in college—sustainability. I regularly listened to podcasts, watched videos and read tons of articles about everything from microplastics to fast fashion. It horrified me and fascinated me at the same time, and I wanted to do something with all the knowledge I was gaining. I began collecting plastic trash in my college premises in the hope of stitching it into a dress inspired by Marina Debris, but after a conversation with my friend about what I’d actually do with the dress, I gave up on the idea. I applied to start a student club for sustainable fashion in my college, but my application got rejected. I came up with this idea for a device that would collect trash from the ocean, for a challenge hosted by some company—that got cancelled because of the pandemic. So, though the judges didn’t get to see it, I thought I’d put it up here for the world to! What’s the problem? 🌊 Every year, billions of pounds of plastic end up in the world’s oceans. At current rates, plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050.
All five of the Earth’s major ocean gyres are inundated with plastic pollution, with the largest one-The Great Pacific Garbage Patch-being the largest accumulation of plastic in the world. We need urgent action to address the global plastic pollution epidemic. Surely, this has been addressed before. 🤔
Actions that have been taken to address this epidemic have majorly been ineffective so far. For example, beach clean-up drives are organised too irregularly to make a significant difference, and revolutionary projects like the Ocean Saviour will take too long to fund and implement on a large scale. Given the urgency of the situation, we need to take collective action, individually. What idea am I proposing? 💡 My aim is to build a low-cost “aqua drone” (a combination of servo motors and 3-D printed parts), that is connected to a user’s hand-held device. The first prototype of the drone has been ideated - it will be equipped with a camera, which gives a live feed to the user through an app on their phone. This app will then be used to identify plastic wastes using an augmented reality filter that identifies and marks plastic wastes. The user can then remotely control the drone’s “arm” to collect the piece of waste.
How does it compare to existing solutions? ↔️ The Ocean Saviour is a self-powering tri-deck 70m clean-up vessel. The funding for this huge project is still ongoing and deploying it will take many more years. In comparison, Aquar is projected to be ready to deploy in 2-3 years. The company Ranmarine only serves and partners with cities, municipalities, waste managers and scientists. Aquar is geared towards individuals, primarily children in order to instill ocean conservation as a priority at a young age as well as promote interest in science and technology. How can it be used? 🕹️ There are multiple ways. One, it can be an interactive, enjoyable way for common citizens to contribute towards plastic-free oceans (for example, a family visiting the beach can play this as a game) Two, it can be sold as a “DIY-assembly kit” at e-commerce and retail avenues, primarily targeting children aged 5-18 years old and marketed as an assistive learning tool for robotics. The assembled product can also be used to assist government bodies and action groups in their clean-up efforts in water bodies. Voila! ✨
What strange obsession did you have in college?