The Development of Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle for Plastic Waste Detection with Raspberry Pi

Abstract Underwater Plastic waste has had a serious impact on the environment. Unfortunately, Detecting and collecting underwater plastic waste is still a challenge, especially in Indonesia because of its position in the water, and the water turbidity. In previous research, a computer algorithm for detecting underwater plastic waste has been developed with Yolov3. To improve the research, we developed a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROUV) with Raspberry Pi through the Research and Development (R&D) method. This ROUV is like a submarine that operates in the water and is integrated with a camera and computer algorithm to detect plastic waste. To get close to the real condition, we created an artificial water environment in a pond with various turbidity (from 20 to 200 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit). We use 30 pieces of plastic waste in several colors: white, red, black, and transparent. The plastic waste dipped in the water and was then detected by the ROUV camera. The result shows that the effective threshold for object detection is around 100 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). Below 100 NTU, although the number of detected plastic images decreases as the turbidity increases, the visibility and contrast still allow for reasonably good object detection. The average confidence value for detection at turbidity levels below 100 NTU is 77%. At high turbidity conditions, the detection model may require adjustment or retraining with data that reflects those turbidity conditions.