Arduino Powered Wet and Dry Garbage Segregation System

Hello people in this project i will show you how to make arduino powered wet and dry waste segregation system, This is a mini version of waste product seperator for small household objects.

I will explain you the working of this segregator, i will be using ultrasonic sensor to detect the objects(obstacles) and if no wet particles is detected by the sensor then the servo moves to one side

On the other hand if the wet particle is detected by the moisture sensor and the ultrasonic sensor detects any obstacles then the servo moves in the opposite direction.

These statuses can be seen in the LCD panel! note that for some reason my LCD panel was not glowing lights, if you use the LCD you will have the backlight.

I have given all the details to build this project, the circuit diagram is well explained and the program is given.

I will strongly recommend everyone to build this project since we all know how waste is being disposed here and there in the surrounding with no proper waste management system.

By building larger versions of this project it will accelerate the process of segregation thereby helping the nature to be clean.

If you make this project let me know in the comment section how it went for you and post your project in the i made it section and i will be happy to take a look and appreciate your version of creation.

Arduino uno

LCD display with I2c from here

Ultrasonic Saensor

Soil Moisture sensor

Micro servo

Small breadboard

Jumper cables

Piece of cardboard

Hot glue

Popsicle sticks

Paper and Scissor

Arduino IDE

Programming Cable

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I will simplify this circuit by breaking down the circuit connection component wise, i will start with LCD module first

LCD module comes with 4 pins and the power pins are connected to power rails on the breadboard.

The Scl and Sda pins on the LCD panel is connected to A5 and A4 pin on the Uno board

The micro servo comes with 3 pins and the power pins Vcc and Gnd is connected to power rails on the breadboard.

Signal pin of the micro servo is connected to pin D8 on the Uno, This completes the connection of servo

The soil moisture sensor also has 3 pins and like the other module the power pins are connected to power rails and the signal pin is connected to A0 or analog pin on the board

The ultrasonic sensor or in short the HC-SR04 board has 4 pins, Out of which the power pins are connected to power rails on the breadboard and the Trig and Echo pins are connected to D12 and D11 pin on the uno

After these connection are complete connect uno board to computer and copy the below codes and select proper type of port and board type on IDE.

Click on upload button, wait for some time for the program to be uploaded on board, Now we can head over to test the circuit and we can see that in the next steps.

To test the circuit i will be using the USB power that is connected to computer and the other end to the Uno board, When you power the uno board the LCD panel will show a message and you can customise this as per your need by going in the code section on the IDE.

Now make sure that there is no obstacle in front of ultarsonic sensor, Now if you get your hand close in front of ultrasonic sensor the servo should move and the LCD should show as DRY.

In the other hand place some wet object(water content) on top of soil moisture sensor followed by placing hand or obstacle in front of ultrasonic sensor the LCD will show as wet and the servo will move in the opposite direction compared to the earlier.

To make the LCD display the wet you can use piece of tomato or any other vegetable or fruit the condition is the surface has to be wet.

After this is complete we can head over to building the model and for this i will be using piece of cardboard.

After we have made sure that the circuit works fine we can assemble all that on a piece of cardboard, you can also use other alternative materials like mdf wood, But those will make this process a little complex and we hate that part right!

Start by placing the arduino uno board on the cardboard and use double sided adhesive or hot glue to couple them, allow to dry for some time and now repeat the same for the breadboard also.

I will use a small plastic container that will collect the dry and wet objects and since it is made of plastic it is easy to work on making the mechanism and we also can see the content inside the container.

To make the container look cool i will give it a lining of 3d printed frame, if you don't have this you can replace the same part with cardboard or thick gsm paper well this is an optional part.

Now we have the bare bone ready! we can attach the mechanism that will be dropping the waste material onto this container and i will use popsicle sticks for that purpose, if you don't have that simply use a square piece of paper as a alternative.

Mechanism for segregation is the important part here since it is the sole part where the entire project is dependent upon.

I will expand the servo shaft horn using a long piece of popsicle stick, now i will take 8 piece of popsicle stick and glue them together so that it will take up the shape of rectangle.

You can trim the excess part later depending on the container size but considering my box size this will serve well, connect this square to the servo shaft using mix of hot and super glue, i first used super glue and for additional strength i will use hot glue and allow to dry completely before proceeding to next step.

Place servo to the side of the box and seal it with hot glue, now adjust the space between them so that the mechanism opens and close flawlessly.

Upon this we will be placing soil moisture sensor and i will use drops of hot glue for this purpose, to the side i will place a small slice of cardboard and to the top of which i will add ultrasonic sensor that will detect the obstacle.

Well well we are now almost at the end part of the build phase and now we can finally test the project and let us see that too.

Using this is soo much fun, but before all you have to do is collect samples of wet and dry waste or garbage items in and around your house.

The scale of this model was built to test with small objects and if you want larger scale of this model replace all the small items with bigger ones, like for example the plastic gear servo to heavy duty servo, the small 10cm x 7cm container with the multiples of your size and the mechanism remains the same for all the sizes.

Connect the uno board to any USB power source using the power cable and you will now see the LCD showing message (welcome message can be customised)

Now place any object above the moisture sensor, if it has moisture/water content and if it is detected by this sensor then the servo will move to the left thereby dropping the object to the left.

On the other hand if the object detected by moisture sensor has no water content and is in front of ultrasonic sensor than the servo moves to the right anf it falls under dry category.

This was all about this arduino powered segregator, If you still have any questions ask in the comments, Thank you for showing interest in this project.

Here is the full video tutorial of the build and also the testing of the segregator of this project.

There is also other variant of the similar project on my previous instructables, If you think you can build a larger model of this project for larger applications than you are more than welcome to discuss this on the comment section below.

Being a responsible human it is our work to keep the environment clean and find out smart ways to keep the place clean.

That is all for this project, if you still have any questions ask in the comments section and i will be happy to help you guys.

Thanks and have a great build and day.