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An image of the user view
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Closeup image of a route for the cleanup
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An image of the user view next to the driver view.
Inspiration
There are severe trash problems in major cities around the world. Trash can be found all over the streets, which can cause infestation problems and issues with people's general health.
What it does
projectOscar allows people to go online and submit a request for trash cleanup. This request is processed, and put into a route with other trash cleanup requests for workers to then follow and clean.
How we built it
We made an HTML page that allows any user to submit a request for trash cleanup. This request is then processed using several APIs in Python into routes for cleanup teams to follow. It then produces another page for workers to use to see the route for that day's cleanup.
Challenges we ran into
When we first began, we wanted to make this an interactable app instead of an HTML page, but we had difficulty making the app using react native, so we opted to use an HTML page so we could complete our project in time. This was also our first time working with APIs, so getting it to work with the free versions was also difficult, since the free API we used, Open Route Service, could only process 40 inputs to create a matrix in a minute, any more would cause the program to not compile. I could also only compile 500 matrices in 24 hours, which was a problem at the beginning since my program wasn't optimized and burned through the limited uses I had. Setting up the visual map routes for the workers to see was also difficult, since it originally calculated the distance from point A to point B, not using the roads (going through buildings) while it may not be ethical they made good time. Eventually, we found an API that properly suited our needs and gave us an actual route for the workers to use.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of our routing algorithm; it managed to be both brief and efficient. As this was our first hackathon this event was filled with challenges but in the end, we triumphed.
What we learned
Learning to work collaboratively in a full-stack environment was a learning experience for us both. We needed to weigh each other strengths and utilize them to make best use of our time. This project required the use of many APIs, and integrating these APIs was a learning experience. We also learned that React Native is more fragile than glass!
What's next for projectOscar
If we are to continue this project our next goal is to fix the server and effectively make the application fully automated, meaning it automatically detects nearby depots and creates the routes from there instead of us needing to tell the program where the depots are. In addition, we would like to continue to improve the routing algorithm to account for multiple truck depots and dump stations.
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