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		Applied Physics

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

[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						Monday morning lecture + discussion (2h), Wednesday morning working session (4h)
Week 2
Week 3