ACM/IEEE IoTDI 2024 - full paper presentation

1. LIZARD: Pervasive Sensing for Autonomous
Plastic Litter Monitoring
Farooq Dar, Mayowa Olapade, Abdul-Rasheed Ottun, Zhigang Yin,
Mohan Liyanage, Agustin Zuniga Monica Passanantti, Sasu
Tarkoma, Petteri Nurmi, Huber Flores
1
May 14, 2024, CPS-IoT Week, Hong Kong
2024

2. Importance
• Plastic pollution is a global concern.
• Pollution is detrimental to human health and natural ecosystems
2
Source: https://rochmanlab.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/cleaning-up-our-
hidden-shorelines/
Source: https://www.eenews.net/articles/plastic-makes-up-81-of-trash-in-
national-parks-report-says/
Poor practices
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/15092-
plastic-seabirds-albatross-australia
Preventing the pollution caused by plastics is extremely important
Animal ingestion Cleaning may too late

3. Finding plastics and fast removal
• Visual inspections (humans) and object recognition fail to identify
plastics as they get smaller
3
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-fish-to-humans-a-
microplastic-invasion-may-be-taking-a-toll/
Food chain
How to identify plastic particles?
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microplastics-linked-to-
heart-attack-stroke-and-death/
Degradation estimates suggest
that humans can
ingest up to a credit
card worth of micro-
plastics each week
Mohamed Nor, N. H., Kooi, M.,
Diepens, N. J., & Koelmans, A. A.
(2021). Lifetime accumulation of
microplastic in children and
adults. Environmental science &
technology, 55(8), 5084-5096.

4. Automated solutions
• Litter cleaning campaigns
▪ Visual, smartphone apps (Citizen science)
• Vehicles
▪ Automated sweepers, vacuum-cleaners
4
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937897/caring-citizens-
residents-join-to-clean-litter-on-streets-and-parks-in-kingdom/
Source: https://www.dawsongroupemc.co.uk/the-benefits-of-a-sweeper/
Source:
https://www.alamy.
com/stock-
photo/street-
vacuum-
cleaner.html?sortB
y=relevant
Current solutions can identify
plastics (to some extent) but
only larger sizes.

5. Automated solutions
• Litter cleaning campaigns
▪ Visual, smartphone apps (Citizen science)
• Vehicles
▪ Automated sweepers, vacuum-cleaners
5
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937897/caring-citizens-
residents-join-to-clean-litter-on-streets-and-parks-in-kingdom/
Source: https://www.dawsongroupemc.co.uk/the-benefits-of-a-sweeper/
Source:
https://www.alamy.
com/stock-
photo/street-
vacuum-
cleaner.html?sortB
y=relevant
Current solutions can identify
plastics (to some extent) but
only larger sizes.

6. Automated solutions
• Litter cleaning campaigns
▪ Visual, smartphone apps (Citizen science)
• Vehicles
▪ Automated sweepers, vacuum-cleaners
6
Sophisticated appliances can
identify smaller particles
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937897/caring-citizens-
residents-join-to-clean-litter-on-streets-and-parks-in-kingdom/
Source: https://www.dawsongroupemc.co.uk/the-benefits-of-a-sweeper/
Source:
https://www.alamy.
com/stock-
photo/street-
vacuum-
cleaner.html?sortB
y=relevant

7. LIZARD (Contributions)
• Low-cost sensing solution: LIZARD uses dual sensing modality
(thermal imaging and light sensing) to detect different (sizes of)
plastics.
• Rigorous evaluation: Performance evaluation in different urban
locations
• New insights: Factors influencing the identification of plastic
particles in the wild
7

8. LIZARD: Overview
8
Source: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-scraps-scout-home-
delivery-robot
Source: https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/news/wichita-state-university-
introduces-fleet-of-food-delivery-robots.html

9. LIZARD: Overview
9
Source: https://theconversation.com/cigarette-butts-are-the-forgotten-
plastic-pollution-and-they-could-be-killing-our-plants-119958
Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/litter-police-
patrol-newcastles-streets-12329375

10. LIZARD: Pipeline
• Simply explained
10
Drone design

11. LIZARD: Phase 1
• Simply explained
11
Phase 1:
Thermal
analysis

12. 12
Thermal dissipation time
LIZARD: Phase 1

13. 13
LIZARD: Phase 1

14. LIZARD: Pipeline
• Simply explained
14
Phase 2:
Light
sensing

15. LIZARD: Pipeline
• Simply explained
15
Phase 2:
Light
sensing
Reduce area of
exploration

16. LIZARD: Phase 2
• Simply explained
16
Phase 2:
Light
sensing
(top) Wavelet
transformation of light
sensor data,
(middle) change point
scores
and (bottom) change
point detection.

17. LIZARD: Phase 2
17

18. LIZARD: Prototype
• Design and development
18

19. Larger plastic profile
(thermal)
19
Source: https://www.recycling.com/why-is-plastic-recycling-important/

20. Small plastic profile
(light)
20
Source: https://www.recycling.com/why-is-plastic-recycling-important/

21. LIZARD: Evaluation
• Testbed (TACO locations) – synthetic design
21

22. LIZARD: Evaluation
• Testbed (TACO locations) – synthetic design
22

23. LIZARD: Identification performance
23

24. LIZARD: Identification performance
24

25. LIZARD: Identification performance
25

26. Practicability
26

27. Practicability
27

28. Comparison
28

29. Summary and conclusions
• Low-cost sensing solution: LIZARD uses dual thermal imaging and
light sensing to detect different sizes of plastic particles
• Rigorous evaluation: Performance evaluation in different urban
locations
• New insights: Factors influencing the identification of plastic
particles in the wild
29

30. Questions? Thank you!
Farooq Dar (farooq.dar@ut.ee)
Mayowa Olapade (mayowa.olapade@ut.ee)
Abdul-Rasheed Ottung (abdul-rasheed.ottun@ut.ee)
Zhigang Yin (zhigang.yin@ut.ee)
Mohan Liyanage (mohan.liyanage@ut.ee)
Agustin Zuniga (agustin.zuniga@helsinki.fi)
Monica Passanantti (passanantti@unito.to)
Sasu Tarkoma (sasu.tarkoma@ut.ee)
Petteri Nurmi (petteri.nurmi@helsinki.fi)
Huber Flores (huber.flores@ut.ee) 30