University Project: Garbage Bin Monitoring System with GSM Module

This project details the development of a smart garbage bin monitoring system designed to improve waste management efficiency. The system utilizes an Arduino microcontroller, an ultrasonic sensor, and a GSM module. The ultrasonic sensor detects the fill level of the garbage bin, and the Arduino processes this data. When the bin reaches a mid-level, the system sends a warning SMS message. If the bin is full, the GSM module sends three SMS messages at five-minute intervals. After the bin is emptied, the GSM module sends a confirmation message. The project aims to reduce waste spillage, improve sanitation, and enhance the living standards in residential areas. The report includes sections on literature review, background research, hardware and software design, results, and conclusions, along with supporting figures and appendices. The project focuses on the practical implementation of the system, including the selection of hardware components, the design of the circuit, and the development of the Arduino program. The results section discusses the observations and outcomes of the project and its impact on waste management.

GARBAGE BIN MONITORING SYSTEM
USING
ARDUINO,
ULTRASONIC SENSOR
AND
GSM MODULE

Abstract
Many cities and towns across the world are facing unending challenges which are caused by the
ever-increasing population and the growing rate of urbanization. This means that more
residential buildings have been brought up and similarly, more offices and industries have been
developed. This comes with an equal share of waste as the demand for food and other
necessities also increases. Every human being produces waste/garbage of a considerable
amount each day from the daily activities that they undertake. Management of waste has
therefore become an important process in any city that is well managed.
A basic aspect of waste management is waste monitoring. This demands that waste at its
production and collection points is well monitored to avoid spreading and most importantly to
avoid contamination of the environment. In most places this process is done manually and
hence is not very effective. Many residential apartments/ flats, for instance, are served by one
or two garbage bins to whom responsibility is left to the local municipality or garbage collection
company. Most of these bins often get filled very fast due to the many residents using it and if
not emptied in time get to spill over, a factor which causes health risks and also pollution to the
environment.
One of the basic ways of avoiding such situations is by the use of smart technology to monitor
the level of the garbage bins in real time and relay that information to the responsible parties
for action. This project aims to reduce the amount of garbage that gets spilled from garbage
bins and to reduce the risks that may be caused by such situations. The main objective of this
project is to develop a smart garbage bin monitoring system that can improve the efficiency of
handling waste. It makes use of ultrasonic sensors which produce ultrasounds that are used to
detect the levels of garbage in a bin. An Arduino microcontroller is used to interface the sensors
and process its information as required. The Arduino microcontroller then communicates to a
GSM Module, giving it specific commands depending on the information acquired from the
sensors. The GSM Module then sends a text message to the respective responsible persons
informing them of the status of the garbage bins.
The Arduino Microcontroller is programmed to command the GSM Module to send one
warning message to the garbage collectors when the bin is at mid-level. When the garbage bin
is full, the GSM Module will then send three messages to the garbage collectors at intervals of
five minutes. This ensures that the messages cannot be forgotten or ignored easily. Once the
bin is emptied, the GSM Module will send another message to confirm that the garbage bin is
cleaned and is therefore empty.
This project plays a big role in ensuring that both homes and cities are maintained at clean
standards and that diseases and hazards that may be caused by poor management of waste are
avoided in an easy, effective and convenient manner of monitoring the garbage bins in real
time.
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Acknowledgement
I wish to acknowledge Almighty God for His unending graces, good health and a right mind
which has allowed me to undertake this project successfully. My loving parents and the entire
family have also been very supportive, materially and financially in the implementation of this
project. I also acknowledge my University administration for allowing me to undertake the
project, my professors and lecturers for guiding and motivating me through the inception,
design and implementation of the project. I also acknowledge my fellow students for the
support that they have granted me through the project. May the Almighty God bless you
abundantly.
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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Acknowledgement...........................................................................................................................2
Contents...........................................................................................................................................3
List of Figures...................................................................................................................................4
List of Appendices............................................................................................................................4
Chapter One: Introduction...........................................................................................................6
1.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................6
1.2 Aims...........................................................................................................................................7
1.3 Objectives..................................................................................................................................7
Chapter two: Literature review....................................................................................................8
2.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................8
2.2 Analysis of Literature Review....................................................................................................8
2.2.1 Ultrasonic Sensor.............................................................................................................8
2.2.2 Arduino............................................................................................................................8
2.2.3 LCD Display......................................................................................................................9
2.2.4 GSM Module....................................................................................................................9
2.3 Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
Chapter Three: Background research........................................................................................11
3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................11
3.2 Background Analysis................................................................................................................11
3.3 Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
Chapter Four: Project Description.............................................................................................13
4.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................13
4.2 Hardware Selection.................................................................................................................13
4.2.1 Ultrasonic Sensor...........................................................................................................13
4.2.2 Arduino Uno AT328p.....................................................................................................14
4.2.3 LCD Display (16 x 2).......................................................................................................14
4.2.4 GSM/ GPRS Module.......................................................................................................15
4.2.5 Power Supply Unit.........................................................................................................15
4.3 Hardware design......................................................................................................................16
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4.4 Software design.......................................................................................................................17
4.5 Conclusion................................................................................................................................22
Chapter Five: Results and discussions.......................................................................................23
5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................23
5.2 Observation of Results.............................................................................................................23
5.3 Discussion of Results................................................................................................................23
5.4 Conclusion................................................................................................................................23
Chapter Six: Conclusion..............................................................................................................24
6.1 Conclusion................................................................................................................................24
6.2 Recommendations...................................................................................................................24
References.....................................................................................................................................26
Appendix........................................................................................................................................28
List of Figures
Figure 1: HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor.............................................................................................12
Figure 2: Arduino Uno AT328P......................................................................................................13
Figure 3: 2 * 16 LCD Display...........................................................................................................13
Figure 4: SIM900A GSM Module...................................................................................................14
Figure 5: Power Supply Unit..........................................................................................................14
List of Appendices
Appendix 1: Garbage bin monitoring system circuit.....................................................................28
Appendix 2: Interfacing LCD Display with Arduino........................................................................29
Appendix 3: Example of a monitoring system setup.....................................................................30
Appendix 4: Home Garbage bin with Sensors beneath the lid.....................................................30
Appendix 5: Garbage lid Fitted with monitoring system...............................................................31
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Appendix 6: Examples of Domestic Garbage bins.........................................................................31
Appendix 7: Example of Municipal garbage bins..........................................................................32
Appendix 8: Garbage Bins along a street in a city.........................................................................32
Appendix 9: Over-spilled Garbage bins along a street..................................................................33
Appendix 10: Garbage bags waiting for collection........................................................................33
Appendix 11: A full garbage bin.....................................................................................................34
Appendix 12: A cow feeding from an over-spilled garbage bin....................................................34
Appendix 13: Children wading through garbage at an un-attended garbage bin.........................35
Appendix 14: A truck distributing Garbage bins............................................................................35
Appendix 15: A smart garbage bin installed in a building.............................................................36
Appendix 16: A smart domestic garbage bin.................................................................................36
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Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
The faster the world develops and as the population continues to rise, the more garbage there
is to collect. Modern world settlements have been faced with the constant challenge of
mismanaged garbage collection, either by residents or by concerned authorities, a factor which
leads to uncleanliness and also poses a health risk. Due to high housing demand, many flats and
apartments have also been built in towns and cities to accommodate the large population of
inhabitants (Islam, M.S. Arebey, M.; Hannan, M.A. ; Basri, 2012). Such buildings lack the luxury
of space and hence the residents are forced to make use of one or a few garbage collection bins
per apartment or per flat. This contributes to the bins filling up very fast and often they do not
get emptied. Continued filling of garbage bins causes them to overflow and litter the
environment which causes a sanitary concern as such become breeding grounds for mosquitoes
and also may cause illnesses such as dengue, cholera and diarrhea (M. Al-Maadeed, N. K. Madi,
Ramazan Kahraman, A. Hodzic, N. G. Ozerkan, 2012).
Many offices also produce a lot of garbage in form of shredded paper, unwanted magazines
among others which also become a nuisance once they are not well managed. It is not
uncommon to find office bins that are filled with garbage, with no indication of them being
emptied soon. This is because many office personnel are always busy attending to different
matters and hence find no time to check on the bins, and if they do, they do not get the time to
empty them.
In major cities and towns around the world, the municipal garbage collectors often are faced
with a hard task of moving around the city, emptying bins and collecting trash along the streets,
in a bid to keep the cities as clean as possible (P. Sukholthaman, K. Shirahada, 2014). However,
many of such bins may be located at highly populated zones as compared to others and hence
they get filled up faster. Such bins require urgent attention as compared to those that do not fill
up as fast. Similarly, it is very uneconomical for the garbage collectors to move on a daily basis
checking if bins are full or not. This is because they consume fuel, energy and valuable time.
With a Garbage Bin Monitoring System, many of these problems would be solved. This project
presents a smart way of monitoring the status of a garbage bin and conveniently relaying the
information to the residents or to the concerned garbage collectors. It makes use of ultrasonic
sensors, Arduino Uno microcontroller and a GSM Module which process the information and
send a text message to the concerned parties on the state of the garbage bins. In this way the
garbage bins can easily and efficiently be monitored.
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1.2 Aims
The aims of this project include;
i. To reduce the amount of garbage that spills from garbage bins causing pollution to
the environment
ii. To control health and environmental risks that come about due to uncollected
garbage
iii. To ease the process of monitoring and collecting garbage from bins
iv. To improve living standards of people especially in residential buildings
1.3 Objectives
i. To design a system based on Sensors, Arduino and GSM Module to automatically
detect garbage bin levels and communicate the information via SMS
ii. To develop an Arduino program that controls the operation of the designed system
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Chapter two: Literature review
2.1 Introduction
To monitor is to check and observe the progress or quality of a particular situation or something
over a period of time (Prof. R.M.Sahu, Akshay Godase, 2016). It can also be said to be the
systematic process of collecting, analyzing and using information to maintain track of an
activity’s progress towards reaching its objectives (M.A. Hannan, M. Arebey, R.A. Begum, H.
Basri, 2012).
In garbage bin monitoring system project, the amount of garbage inside the garbage bins is
detected using ultrasonic sensor systems then it is communicated to the residents or garbage
collectors through GSM Module system. Arduino Uno microcontroller’s role is to interface the
ultrasonic sensors and the GSM Module system (Kanchan Mahajan, Prof J.S.Chitode, 2014).
Ultrasonic sensors are used for garbage level detection using their ultrasonic sound waves (S.M.
Leinders, 2015). GSM module is used for communication, to send message to the concerned
persons on the status of the garbage bin.
2.2 Analysis of Literature Review
2.2.1 Ultrasonic Sensor
Ultrasonic sensors are a type of transducers that convert electric signals into ultrasound and
vice versa (Westerveld, Wouter J, 2014). They are acoustic sensors divided into three
categories, transmitters, which transmit ultrasonic sound, receivers, which receive echo or
bounce-off ultrasound and transceivers, which process the time between transmission and
receiving to find the distance between the object and the transducer (T. Karvinen, K. Karvinen,
V. Valtokari, 2014). The HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor uses ultrasound to detect and determine
distance from an object with stable readings and high accuracy of about 3mm. it sends out a
high frequency ultrasound pulse from its transmitter and determines how long it takes for the
echo to be received back at the receiver (M.A.A. Mamun, M.A. Hannan, A. Hussain, H. Basri,
2015). It uses the speed of sound which is approximately 342m/s in air (S.M. Leinders, 2015).
The controller uses this information together with the difference in time between sending and
receiving of the ultrasound pulse to determine the distance of the object. The mathematical
formula below is used;
Distance= (Time × Speed of sound)
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The signal includes some noise from other sources on the path of the ultrasound and hence it
undergoes some various forms of signal processing to reduce the noise. This is key in ensuring
accuracy.
2.2.2 Arduino
An Arduino Uno board is a microcontroller that allows the user to connect peripheral devices
such as sensors, LCD displays or GSM modules and control them by feeding a code to the board
through a USB port (Hernando Barragán, 2016). The board is powered using 5V either from an
external adapter connected to it or through the USB port. It is equipped with a set of digital
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and analog input and output pins which are used to interface different expansion boards and
other circuits. Arduino is programmed using a myriad of tools from C and C++ programming
languages (M. Banzi, M. Shiloh, 2014). Most Arduino boards have an Atmel 8-bit AVR
microcontroller that has varying number of flash memory, pins and features. They are pre-
programmed with a boot loader that makes it easy for programs to be uploaded to the chip
memory. There are many types of Arduino boards which have been developed. They include
Arduino Uno, Arduino mega, Arduino Diecimila, Arduino Pro and Arduino Lilypad among others
(M. Banzi, M. Shiloh, 2014). All these are programmed from an Arduino Software which allows
writing in any programming language. It has compilers which produce binary machine code for
the target processor (Hernando Barragán, 2016).
2.2.3 LCD Display
An LCD Display is an array of LCD matrices that are aligned together and used to display text
from an Arduino microcontroller. It is designed with either passive or active matrix display grid,
also known as a thin film transistor (TFT) display. The passive matrix LCD has series of
conductors that has pixels at each of the intersections grid. Active matrices has transistors at
the pixel intersections which reduce the current used to control pixel luminance.
2.2.4 GSM Module
The GSM Module/ modem stands for Global System for Mobile communication (Anton A.
Huurdeman, 2003). It is an open and digital cellular technology used for conveying mobile
communication and data. It basically digitizes and reduces data then sends it through a path
with two different streams of client data with its own unique time slot (S. Temple, 2013). It has
the capacity to carry from 64kbps to 120Mbps of data rates (Anton A. Huurdeman, 2003). GSM
consists of three components (Microtronics Technologies, 2013); a mobile station, a base
station and a network subsystem. A mobile station is basically the mobile phone or modem
which contains the transceiver, display and processor. It is controlled using a sim card that
operates over a network. The base station acts as a link between the mobile station and the
network subsystem. The network subsystem provides basic network connection to the mobile
stations. Its most basic component is the mobile service switching centre that allows access to
networks such as PSTN and ISDN (Microtronics Technologies, 2013). The GSM module offers
many features which include international roaming, phonebook management, fixed calling
number, high quality speech, real time clock which provides alarm management, support for
new services and also offers short messaging services (C. K.M. Lee, T. Wu, 2014). SIM900A GSM
Module used in this project accepts any GSM network operator sim card. It acts similar to a
mobile phone with a unique phone number. Many applications such as remote control, SMS
control, logging and data transfer can be done conveniently using this module (A.F. Thompson,
A.H. Afolayan, E.O. Ibidunmoye, 2014). It can either be connected to Arduino microcontroller
through RS232 or it can be configured in GPRS mode to enable it connect to the internet for
control and data logging (C. K.M. Lee, T. Wu, 2014).
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2.3 Conclusion
The four components; Ultrasonic sensors, Arduino, LCD Display and the GSM module provide
the ideal tools that can enable the implementation of a smart garbage monitoring system for
use in any setup. They are highly reliable as they are not prone to errors and the system runs in
real time which improves on efficiency.
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Chapter Three: Background research
3.1 Introduction
Many cities are faced with enormous challenges due to the ever-increasing urbanization. A
major challenge is the high amount of waste and littering caused by the high demand for food
and other essentials (Islam, M.S. Arebey, M.; Hannan, M.A. ; Basri, 2012). There are five types
of waste that can be generated from domestic and industrial setups. These are solid waste,
liquid waste and gaseous waste. All these different types of waste are more often collected by
use of garbage collection bins which are placed at strategic positions either at home or at an
industry. Industrial waste is deemed more hazardous and is therefore a risk factor when it is not
well managed (M. Al-Maadeed, N. K. Madi, Ramazan Kahraman, A. Hodzic, N. G. Ozerkan,
2012). Hospitals also pose a great risk of spreading infections when waste is not handled in the
right manner and at the right timing. Domestic waste also causes the risk of infections and at
times, organic waste may lead to production of methane gas which is a security threat as it is
highly flammable. Such factors necessitate for the right and convenient methods of waste
management.
3.2 Background Analysis
Waste management is the activity and measure undertaken to collect, transport, treat and
dispose waste together with monitoring and regulating the production of waste (Md. Shafique
Islam, M.A Hannan, 2012). It is intended towards reducing the effects of waste on human
health, the environment and other aesthetics. Large responsibilities of waste management
practices lie with municipalities which manage bulk waste produced from households,
industries and commercial activities.
Methods of collecting waste are different among different countries and regions (P.
Sukholthaman, K. Shirahada, 2014). Domestic waste collection services are mostly offered by
local governments. Industrial and commercial waste is majorly handled by private companies in
many countries. However, most lesser developed regions do not boast of formal waste
collection systems. In most European countries and other parts of the developed world where
waste is collected at regular intervals, curbside method of collection is used (O. M. Johansson,
2006). In such cases, homesteads are provided with garbage bins which are then emptied into
garbage trucks which then transfer the waste to management sites for further processing.
However, even with all the processes, public waste bins around cities and homes fill up faster
and inevitably end up overflowing before being collected. Manual operation has also been
prone to being managed by lazy staff who may choose to skip routine garbage collection trips,
willingly or unwillingly (O. M. Johansson, 2006). In past years, negligence by local authorities in
Naples to maintain cleanliness led to hazardous outbreak of cancers, allergies and even birth
defects among locals. A pneumonic plague also broke out in Surat, India in 1994 due to
unmanaged waste in the town (M. Al-Maadeed, N. K. Madi, Ramazan Kahraman, A. Hodzic, N.
G. Ozerkan, 2012).
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