PRE2024 3 Group10

Problem statement and Objectives

Oceans are a place full of wonder and beautiful sea creatures, but for a very long time plastic has laid waste to the ocean. There is an estimate of 75 to 200 million tons of plastic in the ocean (1) killing about 100000 marine animals per year (2). The ocean is full of plastic which ideally all needs to go. A lot of organizations are trying to clean it up but still the amount of plastic is increasing every year, researchers even think that by 2050 the weight of plastic will exceed the weight of fish (3). We want to design a robot that can advance the progress of the ocean cleanup. Animals like whales, sea turtles and sea lions should be able to live as comfortably as we can. We want to make a positive impact for the lives of these animals and decrease the plastic pollution in the ocean.

Users and their needs

Primary users:

• With our research, environmental Cleanup Organizations will gain access to new robotic solutions, improving their ability to achieve the goal of removing plastic and debris from the oceans. They require reliable and efficient robot designs that can handle different situations and different kinds of ocean debris. In addition, the solution should be cost effective to fit into their budgets.

• Government agencies gain new tools for ocean cleaning policies and reducing nature pollution, creating public recognition for addressing environmental issues and increasing their support base. They would require robots that comply with national regulations, for example in terms of safety. In addition, they would require enough research data and actual results to justify government funding.

• Non-profit groups would gain examples of current research and solutions for ocean cleanup, to attract possible donors for their organisation. For that, they would require easy-to-understand and transparent results to showcase.

Secondary users:

• Researchers could gain new insights on possibilities to clean up the ocean, helping them to improve their results as well. Therefore, they would require access to our research and data.

• Engineers could get inspired to build the design, or even improve it. Also, they can gain insight into struggles we found, incorporating it into their own work. For this, they would require technical specifications of the design, and the feedback and evaluation of the research.

• Policymakers would gain additional evidence to support their policies and funding decisions. For this, they need accessible reports and results and a low-cost solution.

References

The OneDrive can be accessed via https://tuenl-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/l_kirkels_student_tue_nl/Ev3UBVOtfktApfNvxowBf-YBFpdR1uAtqIWQzg_Px7CosQ?e=URlCi2

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