PRE2024 3 Group10

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

Every week we have divided the task between chairman, minute taker and a wiki updater. The wiki updater updates the OneDrive at the end of the week to the Wiki page.

Group members

Member	Student number	Program
Loes Kirkels		Applied Physics
Joost Schuurmans	1893297	Applied Physics
Jamin van Amelsvoort	1829998	Applied Physics
Tom Weegels	1883410	Applied Physics
Norah Bouma	1902121	Applied Physics

Problem statement and Objectives

Beaches are beautiful places where a lot of fun is to be had, but they are being terrorized by plastic. On average there is about 20-80 kg plastic per kilometer beach. Withour proper cleanups the beaches would be unuseable. Luckily there are big beach cleanups like the Boskalis Beach Cleanup which is a tour where all beaches in the Netherlands connected to the North Sea are cleaned by volunteers. Here also various data is collected on how much, what type and at what places the plastics are. These cleanup tours are however mostly done during the summer, when the weather is good. This means the data on plastics on beaches is mostly skewed towards days when the weather is good, but to build the best possible plan of battling the plastic problem, a better representation of the dats is needed. To get a proper representation of the data on plastics on beaches, also the data in worse weather conditions are needed, like in the winter. We will be investigating how data on plastics on beaches can be gathered effectively and efficiently.

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

[1]: RTS - Recycle Track Systems. (2025, 10 januari). Plastic Pollution in The Ocean - 2025 Facts and Statistics. Recycle Track Systems. https://www.rts.com/blog/plastic-pollution-in-the-ocean-facts-and-statistics/#:~:text=How%20Much%20Plastic%20Is%20in,marine%20environment%20every%20single%20year

[2]: Mulhern, O. (2022, 21 juli). How many marine animals die from plastic each year? Earth.Org. https://earth.org/data_visualization/how-many-marine-animals-does-ocean-plastic-kill/

[3]: Davison, T. (2024, 5 november). How Much Plastic is in the Ocean in 2024? | Stats | CleanHub. cleanhub. https://blog.cleanhub.com/how-much-plastic-in-the-ocean#:~:text=Key%20findings,into%20rivers%20and%20the%20sea.

Planning

	Approach	Milestones and deliverables
Week 1	-Make planning with milestones and deliverables (everyone) -Literature study (5 articles per person), summarized on the wiki (state-of-the-art research) -Make problem statement and objectives (Jamin) -Write down users and what they require (Joost)	Problem statements and objectives Plan (subject, objectives, users)
Week 2	-Make a state-of-the-art from the summarized articles (Norah) -Think of the requirement and goals the robot should have (Loes&Tom) -Do further research (Joost) -Do a user study (Jamin)	State-of-the-art Concrete ideas for a concept
Week 3	-Write down the research in the wiki (Joost) -Investigate the specifics of the robot (Jamin&Loes) -Write the user study in the wiki (Tom) -Write down the process of approach in the wiki (Norah)	Finished research Concept of the robot Finished user study
Week 4	-Design concept of the robot (Loes) -Write the research and results in the wiki (Joost) -Start designing the model of the robot (Loes&Norah)	Research and results in the wiki
Week 5	-Finish the model of the robot (Loes&Norah) -Finish the wiki (Joost&Jamin&Tom)	Finalized model Finalization of research, everything written down in the wiki
Week 6	-Make the presentation -Room for things that still need to be done	Presentation
Week 7	Preparation for final presentation

Weekly updates

	Loes	Joost	Jamin	Tom	Norah	General
Week 1		Research papers (4h)				Monday morning lecture + discussion (2h), Wednesday morning working session (4h)
Week 2						Monday morning meeting (1h), monday afternoon meeting (4h), contact users (4h), generalize and research the subject (2h)
Week 3		Research drones in bad weather conditions (4h)