Autonomous Water Surface Plastic Collection Robot

Chung, Yun Sheng (2026) Autonomous Water Surface Plastic Collection Robot. Final Year Project (Diploma), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Marine pollution caused by floating plastic bottles is a growing environmental problem in rivers and coastal areas. Traditional waste collection methods are labour-intensive, time-consuming, and not suitable for continuous operation. This project aims to design and develop an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) prototype capable of autonomous navigation for bottle waste collection. (addon what u build). A pre-trained YOLOv8 model is used to develop a vision-based detection system to identify plastic bottles in a swimming pool environment. The USV is also integrated with a GPS module to provide real-time track its movement during operation. The propulsion system uses differential motor control to enable waypoint navigation. Experimental testing was carried out in a swimming pool to evaluate system performance. The YOLOv8-based detection model successfully captures and identifies plastic bottles, while the GPS navigation system maintained stable tracking and draws a path gone through by the prototype. In conclusion, the developed prototype demonstrates that integrating autonomous navigation, YOLOv8-based vision detection, and GPS positioning can provide a practical and low-cost solution for floating bottle collection.