Nowadays, mountains and nature in them are suffering because tourists do not care about local ecological stability. They throw litter and takeovers from the stuff they used during the trip, and the natural environment and its creatures are getting damaged, so loss of species and a high rate of pollution appear in these areas. For instance, in 2022, 35 thousand tons of garbage were collected in the tourist areas of the mountainous area of Almaty like Kok-Zhailau, which is a favourite tourist destination. “Green Box” project solves the pressing problem by providing trash bins in which people can throw all their not-needed things. However, who will collect them? Because as the height of mountains increases, the level of difficulty for collectors to reach those bin stops increases too.

The project demonstrates an innovative solution to use autonomous drones to conduct this operation. Every hiking trip or tourist places will have trash bins with electronics inside. There is an Arduino UNO board, a weight measurement tool, which will say when the bin reaches the maximum of load (2kg) not to overweight the drone, IR beacon to make the drone find the bin, and flashing lights to make people aware before taking the bin. Because of IR beacon and its IR (infrared) signals, the vehicle is able to detect the exact position of the bin even in smog and bad or non-visible weather conditions. After the bin communicates with the drone station that the load is full, the drone activates and goes for it. The onboard of the UAV also consists of different types of electronics. The vehicle has a GPS sensor to know a position from the satellites, telemetry radio to communicate with the ground station, the IR camera to view IR signals, Pixhawk 2.4.8 controller and PM-07 power distribution panel. It has a specially designed grabbing mechanism, which is powered by a servo and takes trash bins from the ground. The different softwares and control methods are used to provide an accurate and precise flying of the drone. The project uses programming libraries like DroneKit, ROS and an application like QGroundControl (ground station). The program is written in Python programming language and there are advanced control methods like PID, which provides safe and precise position feedback. Besides, the drone, as a quadcopter, has 4 motors and 4 ESC to control the speed and consistent power. In addition, the system of the drone and trash bins has unique 3D-printed for a variety of purposes, like the drone support structures and the claw mechanism. Currently, the project is under the testing of computer vision using Rasberry Pi to precisely identify trash bins.

The whole project is unique and the idea has never been introduced in today’s world. There are drones that deliver goods but cannot take the item by itself as the drone from this project. Therefore, “Green Box” is a game-changer invention that can save the world's ecosystem and ecology in different hard-to-reach areas.