I-Corps: Aquatic debris cleanup using multi-agent unmanned surface vehicles and hotspot-based path optimization

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使美国海岸线受益。世界经济论坛预测，到2050年，世界海洋中的塑料将超过鱼类。海滨维护工人面临着海洋垃圾污染问题的首当其冲，因为80%的海洋垃圾来自近岸。因此，仅海滨地区的政府就总共花费了102亿美元来清理这些水道。拟议的技术使生态系统受益，因为它消除了我们海岸的垃圾污染，从而防止了生态系统退化，并使人们现在和未来都能从海洋服务中受益。这个i-Corps项目引入了无人水面车辆(USV)的使用，以最大限度地提高碎片清理性能，并提供负担得起的解决方案来清理这些水道。正在制定解决方案，以解决一旦碎片进入海洋后的海洋塑料污染问题；然而，在改善含有80%塑料碎片的海岸线拾取方面的努力不足。人工收集残骸的方法效率低，成本低。这为将USV技术扩展到航道维护打开了大门。同样，USV环境监测能力可以为航道和研究人员提供数据，如藻类水华的氧气监测和负担得起的数据捕获。该团队目前在雅各布斯工程学院和斯克里普斯海洋研究所拥有一个工作原型和合作伙伴关系。I-Corps客户发现活动将揭示在这些水道中经历的确切痛点，以告知拟议的技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to benefit US shorelines. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans. Waterfront maintenance workers face the brunt of the marine trash pollution issue as 80% of marine trash is sourced near-shore. As a result, waterfront governments alone spend a total of $10.2 billion to clean these waterways. The proposed technology benefits ecosystems by removing trash pollution from our shores, thereby preventing ecosystem degradation and allowing people to both benefit from marine services now and in the future. This I-Corps project introduces the use of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) to maximize debris cleanup performance and provide affordable solutions to cleaning these waterways. Solutions are being developed to address the oceanic plastic pollution problem once the debris is already in the ocean; however, insufficient effort is directed towards improving shoreline pickup, which contains 80% of plastic debris. Human-operated methods to collect the debris is inefficient and cost ineffective. This opens the door to expand USV technology to waterway maintenance. Similarly, USV environmental monitoring capabilities may provide data to the waterways and researchers such as oxygen monitoring for algae blooms and affordable data capture. The team currently has a working prototype and partnerships at the Jacobs School of Engineering and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The I-Corps customer discovery activities will reveal the exact pain points experienced in these waterways to inform the proposed technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.