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1 s2.0 S0956053X11003291 Main
1 s2.0 S0956053X11003291 Main
Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman
Dept. of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Institute for Environment and Development, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
c
Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 18 January 2011
Accepted 19 July 2011
Available online 25 August 2011
Keywords:
Solid waste monitoring and management
GPS
RFID
GIS
GPRS
Database
a b s t r a c t
This paper deals with a system of integration of Radio Frequency Identication (RFID) and communication technologies for solid waste bin and truck monitoring system. RFID, GPS, GPRS and GIS along with
camera technologies have been integrated and developed the bin and truck intelligent monitoring system. A new kind of integrated theoretical framework, hardware architecture and interface algorithm
has been introduced between the technologies for the successful implementation of the proposed system.
In this system, bin and truck database have been developed such a way that the information of bin and
truck ID, date and time of waste collection, bin status, amount of waste and bin and truck GPS coordinates
etc. are complied and stored for monitoring and management activities. The results showed that the realtime image processing, histogram analysis, waste estimation and other bin information have been displayed in the GUI of the monitoring system. The real-time test and experimental results showed that
the performance of the developed system was stable and satised the monitoring system with high practicability and validity.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Most of the local governments and urban agencies identied
that waste monitoring and management are becoming an acute
problem for their urbanization and economic development (Shekdar, 2009). Again, the lack of awareness, ignorance and knowledge
among communities about solid waste issues has worsened the
problem (Ahmed and Ali, 2004). However, it is critical for them
to adopt a broad approach in developing a working framework
due to their social, economic, technological, political and administrative views. The standards of waste management in Malaysia are
still poor. For example, poor and outdated documentation of waste
generation rates, inefcient and manual collection systems and
inefcient utilization of disposal site space (Hassan et al., 2000).
The information about the collecting time and area, tracking the
trucks and trash bin, amount of solid waste, quick response to
urgent and clients complaints are still problems for the management (Ping and Yang, 2006; Chandravathani, 2006; Vicentini
et al., 2009). Thus, the solid waste management companies are
focusing for higher technologies to solve the problems related to
waste collection, monitoring and management.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hannan@eng.ukm.my (M.A. Hannan).
0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2011.07.022
above limitations, the advanced communication technologies solutions such as RFID, GPRS, GPS and GIS must be utilized.
In this paper, theoretical framework and interface algorithm between communication technologies such as RFID, GPRS, GPS and
GIS have been developed for the prototype implementation. The
interface algorithm in the control server is able to analyze the location of the trucks, estimate the waste in the bin and its surrounding
area. Thus, the proposed system would be able to solve the mentioned problems with robust solution.
Table 1
Total quantity of domestic waste generated daily (tons per day).
States
Johor
Kedah
Kelantan
Melaka
Sembilan
Pahang
Perak
Perlis
Pinang
Selangor
Terengganu
Kuala Lumpur
Sarawak
Sabah
Total
Projection in TPD
2002
2004
2007
2010
2154
1309
1073
504
891
1024
1644
165
1026
3293
733
1088
1674
2085
18,494
2636
1602
1313
617
848
1253
2012
202
1266
4031
898
1332
2058
2517
22,638
3071
1866
1529
719
988
1460
2344
236
1462
4695
1038
1551
2387
2962
26,419
3579
2175
1783
838
1149
1702
2733
275
1705
5473
1219
1808
2783
3418
30,794
2407
2408
Black box
RFID
Tag
RFID Reader
+Camera
Bin with Tag
GSM/GPRS
Network
GSM&GPRS
Receiver
Client
GIS
Database
Fig. 1. Architecture of solid waste bin and truck monitoring and management
system.
SW Bin
RFID Tag
The method of the proposed system is divided into three subsection such as theoretical framework, hardware architecture and
interface algorithm between technologies. The prototype is developed using RFID, GIS and GPRS interfaced with low cost camera
along with control server for solid waste bin and truck monitoring
and management system. In this system, there is a great deal of
process intelligence to ensure the capability of the prototype and
also justify its validity. Subsections of the prototype are detailed
as follows.
Network
GSM/GPSR
Subtract received
image from the
Calculating
SW
Update BIN
The theoretical framework of the bin and truck monitoring system is based on data communication between RFID tag and reader,
images and GPS data transmission using GSM and GPRS network
and retrieved data interface with GIS. The RFID reader continues
radiating RF signal i.e. operating energy or effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) to the RFID tag. If the bin associated with tag lies
within the readers range, an alternating RF voltage is induced on
the transponder antenna. Then the voltage is rectied to provide
a direct-current (DC) supply voltage for tag operation. The adequate power level received by the tag determines the read/write
range or identication range between the reader and tag (Ricci
and Grisanti, 2009) as follows:
k
R6
4p
s
EIRP reader Gtag
Ptag
Update RFID
1
4pR
1
4pR
2
k2
Gtag
4p
k2
Gtag
4p
where, Pam is the RF power available at the tag antenna and Pdr is the
RF power reradiated at the tag antenna.
In the passive RFID system, the power, received by the tag, directly determines the read/write (R/W) range or identication
range between the reader and tag. The tag needs to backscatter
sufcient power to satisfy the reader sensitivity. This is determined
from the maximum allowable bit error rate (BER). Thus, the power
link between the RFID reader and tag needs to be investigated very
carefully. However, before determining the distance of reader and
tag, data encryption is needed in RFID technology as a safety measure. If the data stored in the tag is not encrypted, any reader is
2409
S fP; C; K; E; Dg
dx;0
fx v x px
2 cx
where, dx,0 is the distance between tag and reader x, fx is the frequency provided by reader x, vx is the wavelength of frequency provided by reader x, px is the period of time for tag detection and cx is
the number of tag detection within a period of time, respectively.
When the reader and the tag are in the required proximity, the
system requires the message read by the reader to be sent to the
system. But besides RFID, GPS data ows are also needs to be processed before integrating it with the system. GPS gathers location
data from the satellite and sent to the web server of the system
along with RFID data. This GPS data is able to be used to get the
minimum distance of the bin location and certain truck position
equipped with GPS module. The minimum distance with build in
map between the bin and truck is determined at the user interface
as follows (Niu et al., 2009):
min
q
x xi 2 y yi 2
where, minimum distance between the bin tag and truck reader,
(x, y) is the GPS coordinates of the truck and (xi, yi) is a point at
the bin segment.
2410
T1
X
pi
i0
nO T
N1
X
pi
The GSM positioning distance estimation between the GSM transmitter and receiver is obtained as follows.
1
TA-Distance TA-v alue
dTA
2
10
Pn
j1 T ij M j
iT
where, nB (T) and nO (T) are the summation of image pixels p(i)
within the intensity level (0, T 1) and (T, N 1), respectively. r2B
(T) and r2O (T) are the variance of pixels in below threshold and
above threshold, respectively.
For easy computation, between-class variance is used by subtracting the within-class variance from the total variance of combined distribution.
r2 between T r2 r2 within T
nB TlB T l nO TlO T l
j1 M j
11
Ai Pn
240 L bin in order to gather the serial number of the bin. The RFID
reader and camera are mounted in the truck. GPS and GIS are used
in the intelligent system for tracking the position of the truck and
bin location as well as mapping the detection and monitoring of
the trucks and bins. In this way, the actual content of the bin and
its surrounding area can be estimated with high precision.
4.3. Interface algorithm between technologies
The interface algorithm between the technologies working
principle shown in Fig. 2. The interface algorithm deals with the
process of intelligence to ensure the system capability and justify
its validity. RFID tag is attached to each bin in order to monitor
and track the bin during the collection process. Low cost camera
and reader are attached to the truck in order to get bin information
and images. When the truck comes closer to the bin, RFID reader
communicates with the RFID tag to capture the tags ID and other
information about the bin and gives signal to the camera to capture
the rst image. After the collection process is done, the camera
captures the second image. Thus, all the real-time informations
such as tag ID, collection time, bin status images, waste content
in the bin and GPS data are forwarded to the control server through
the GSM and GPRS modem with the availability of GSM/GPRS network. The GIS based operator interface presents a digital map of
bin status as well as truck position. All these data from the bin
and truck are stored in the database and presented on the digital
map. The received images are subtracted from reference i.e. gray
scale images in order to obtain the image differences between
the two images. The image differences are then converted into a
binary black/white image for further processing to calculate SW
amount using Otsu methodology. As the functionality of the system is to optimize the scheduling activities according to the previous uploaded data, then bin prole and RFID database need to be
updated to measure the efciency of the current situation. The
minimization processes consider the cost of the time and cost of
truck operation. The system parameters are represented by the
recorded data of the bin. In this way, collection time and position,
actual content of the bin and its surrounding area can be estimated
with high precision.
5. Results and discussion
Based on monitoring function and operating principle, the system structure was consisted mainly four parts such as (i) automated bin attached with RFID tag, (ii) intelligent vehicle i.e. truck
equipped with RFID reader, camera, GPS module and GSM and
GPRS transmitter, (iii) Monitoring platform interfaced with GSM
and GPRS receiver and GIS module, and (iv) communication network, respectively. In this section, RFID tag and Reader data acquisition, bin and truck data information, waste estimation, image
analysis within GUI, histogram analysis are demonstrated in order
to monitoring and management solid waste bin and truck using
RFID and communication technologies.
Fig. 3 shows the bin information in the monitoring database.
The information such as bin ID, date of waste collection and truck
ID, stored in the RFID tag were read by the RFID reader. The images
taken by camera were processed based on Otsu methodology in order to examined bin status either collected or uncollected and
amount of estimated waste either empty, full or overow, respectively. The latitude and longitude coordinates of bin location were
provided by GPS module that attached in the truck along with RFID
reader and GSM and GPRS module. All these information are combined together and sent to the control station via GSM and GPRS
transceiver. The control station compiled all the information and
stored in the system database as mentioned.
2411
With the similar fashion of bin monitoring, waste truck database was monitored as shown in Fig. 4. All information such as
truck ID, driver name, longitude, latitude, truck speed, collection
and date were received in the control station via GSM and GPRS
transceiver and complied in the system database. Thus, operator
can monitor the bin and truck data that was stored in the database
for future planning use.
The image processing and histogram analysis, waste estimation,
bin status, bin ID, collection date and time, etc. are discussed in the
bin and truck monitoring system. All the processing was carried
out in the control server through graphical user interface (GUI)
as shown in Figs. 57. In the process of image restoration, image
enhancement and waste estimation, the effected noise and low
contrast were removed using ltration technique to overcome
these problems. After the image being processed the image converted into grayscale format to make a comparison. Grayscale image was subtracted from the reference image in order to obtain the
differences between the two images. For example, in default status
i.e. empty bin, the whole image was represented by black pixel and
no appearance to white pixels. It was noticed as the waste increased, the number of black pixel decreased and intensity level
of histogram increased as shown in full and overow bin status
GUI. In GUI, the frequency of occurrence of each grayscale was
0255. The background of the image was removed by subtracting
the two images from each other. The subtracted image i.e. the left
image was the objects or waste. Then the gray format image was
converted into binary format of 0 or 1 value. The 0 value corresponds to black indicated no waste appeared and 1 corresponds
to white indicated the waste. The slider was added to the GUI to
measure the status of the bin and the amount of waste whether
the bin was empty, full or overow, respectively.
The waste estimation was analyzed from both gray and binary
images. Grayscale image showed the intensity level of histogram
and how it was varied from empty to overow status. Binary
images showed the slider value and how it changed from empty
to overow. There are three status of the bin was recorded and
tested. First case showed the empty status of bin i.e. there was
no pixel recorded in the histogram and conversion of binary image
was all black i.e. 0 values. We have measured the frequency occurrence of the white pixels at 255 and found there was no white pixel
recorded on the slider. There was nothing in the status indication
bar. Thus the bin status was empty along with other information
as shown in Fig. 5.
In the second case, the bin status was full in which the intensity
level of histogram was changed as the waste increased as shown in
Fig. 6. We have measured the frequency occurrence of the pixels
value at 255 and found that the amount of waste represented by
the slider value was 306,919 pixels. It also found that the bin status
bar was red color in full position i.e. bin was full of waste. In general, the maximum image pixels are 480,000 at 255 in the slider.
Thus, it can concluded, if the waste increases, the white pixels increases as well and the slider value changes to higher range of the
white pixel.
In 3rd case, it was found that the intensity level of histogram
was higher due to the overow of waste as shown in Fig. 7. The
bin status indicated that it was overow and slider value was increased to 350,158 pixels at 255. It also seen that the frequency
occurrence of pixels value was higher than the threshold value.
The image pixels increased as the waste increased. It can be concluded that the higher the intensity level of histogram, higher
the waste and lower the intensity, lower the waste. Thus, the
image analysis of the developed system provided the status of
the bin for monitoring and management. Again, re-allocation the
location of the bin, truck route and its scheduling are also the contribution of the system. Hence, the control server of the system can
plan for better bin and truck distribution cooperating with
2412
bin from solid waste amount that have been thrown daily as well
as truck route and its scheduling. Hence, the control server of
the system can plan for better bin and truck distribution cooperating with communication technologies. Thus, solid waste bin and
truck including related information can be monitor and manage
using the developed system.
Acknowledgement
The authors are acknowledged this work for the nancial support under the Grant UKM-PTS-003-2009.
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