Picky Yeeter | Devpost

The webcam captures the appearance of the object, before feeding it through a CNN and predicting its recyclability.
The 2nd iteration of the breadboarding circuit (left), and the Jetson controller (middle).
The side of the mechanism, with a view of the rack and pinion launch system
The mechanism viewed from the top, with the two webcams on the left

Inspiration

Categorizing waste is not a habit that can be built by “recyclables only” signs. At the end of the day, waste is waste, right? Here is the problem: 15% of all items in Waterloo's recycling pipeline are considered "contaminated" (cannot be processed). Sometimes, people need just an extra push to start taking recycling seriously.

What it does

We believe that stewardship of the environment should just be like stewardship of your own children. If babies can throw tantrums at detestable food, why can’t nature? Hence, the Picky Yeeter aims to highlight the seriousness of recycling by launching the misplaced garbage back at the unsuspecting offender. This simple action can mean a thousand words.

How we built it

The Picky Yeeter consists of two main intertwined systems: the Python software, responsible for classifying recyclable and non-recyclable waste; and the hardware, which brings nature’s tantrums to life. When waste enters the chute, a convolutional neural network will examine its characteristics to determine its recyclability, computed by a Nvidia Jetson Nano. Depending on this, the computer will then rotate the mechanism, aimed at either the recycling bin, or the perpetrator.

Challenges we ran into

The most unpredictable part of a hardware project is to supervise the hardware itself. Our project’s stepper drivers, a crucial component that powers the aiming and catapult systems, suddenly shorts and renders the breadboard near unusable. These catastrophic failures can occur anytime during development, and we are grateful that our careful demeanor prevented these mistakes from occurring again near the deadline.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are especially glad of our persistence through the various ups and downs of this project. Many times, when a part of the circuit manages to short or fail unconditionally, we feel a dreadful sense of defeat and unrest. Upon discovering a solution, we will always find incompatibilities and inconsistencies that impede our progress. Despite all this, we never acknowledged failure. The Picky Yeeter represents our proud culmination of every pivotal incident and discovery along this journey.

What we learned

Exposing solderless breadboards to high currents should definitely be considered a safety hazard.

What's next for Picky Yeeter

In the future, we will aim to increase the stability of this machine. Breadboarding is known to be extremely volatile; we are considering to switch to a more reliable interface (e.g. Raspberry Pi or Arduino).