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Modeling and Control of a Floating Marine Litter Collection Device
Summary
Marine litter collection devices offer a way to intercept plastic waste in rivers and estuaries before it reaches the open ocean and fragments into microplastics. This study developed mathematical models to simulate and control the behavior of a floating collection device called Waste Out of Water (WoW), optimizing its performance under different current and wind conditions. While focused on engineering and control systems rather than microplastic science, effective debris capture technology is an important tool for preventing new microplastic formation at sea.
Marine litter poses a significant environmental threat, with detrimental effects on marine ecosystems through toxic chemical release, entanglement, ingestion by marine life, and microplastic formation. Floating waste collection devices, such as the Waste Out of Water (WoW) system developed by the University of Florence, offer a solution by intercepting debris before it disperses into open waters. The WoW device employs a buoyant sliding-cylinder mechanism to regulate water inflow, driven by water level variations, while a pump-controlled outflow directs polluted water to a filtration system. This study proposes a fluid-dynamic model of the WoW system, incorporating factors such as inflow dynamics, outflow regulation, buoyancy, friction, and motion constraints. The model is treated as a grey-box, the parameters are estimated through the solution to an optimization problem in the frequency domain, and the model is validated against experimental data collected during the device operation. Moreover, a simple PID control strategy is implemented in the simulation to show the potential ability to control the device to an operational point of interest. These findings provide useful insights into improving floating waste collection devices and their deployment for effective marine pollution mitigation.
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