Waste management is one of the challenges facing countries globally, leading to the need for innovative ways to design and operationalize smart waste bins for effective waste collection and management. The inability of extant waste bins to facilitate sorting of solid waste at the point of collection and the attendant impact on waste management process is the motivation for this study. The South African University of Technology (SAUoT) is used as a case study because solid waste management is an aspect where SAUoT is exerting an impact by leveraging emerging technologies. In this article, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based model called You-Only-Look-Once (YOLO) is employed as the object detection algorithm to facilitate the classification of waste according to various categories at the point of waste collection. Additionally, a nature-inspired search method is used as learning rate for the CNN model. The custom YOLO model was developed for waste object detection, trained with different weights and backbones, namely darknet53.conv.74, darknet19_448.conv.23, Yolov4.conv.137 and Yolov4-tiny.conv.29, respectively, for Yolov3, Yolov3-tiny, Yolov4 and Yolov4-tiny models. Eight (8) classes of waste and a total of 3171 waste images are used. The performance of YOLO models is considered in terms of accuracy of prediction (Average Precision—AP) and speed of prediction measured in milliseconds. A lower loss value out of a percentage shows a higher performance of prediction and a lower value on speed of prediction. The results of the experiment show that Yolov3 has better accuracy of prediction as compared with Yolov3-tiny, Yolov4 and Yolov4-tiny. Although the Yolov3-tiny is quick at predicting waste objects, the accuracy of its prediction is limited. The mean AP (%) for each trained version of YOLO models is Yolov3 (80%), Yolov4-tiny (74%), Yolov3-tiny (57%) and Yolov4 (41%). This result of mAP (%) indicates that the Yolov3 model produces the best performance results (80%). In this regard, it is useful to implement a model that ensures accurate prediction to develop a smart waste bin system at the institution. The experimental results show the combination of KSA learning rate parameter of 0.0007 and Yolov3 is identified as the accurate model for waste object detection and classification. The use of nature-inspired search methods, such as the Kestrel-based Search Algorithm (KSA), has shown future prospect in terms of learning rate parameter determination in waste object detection and classification. Consequently, it is imperative for an EdgeIoT-enabled system to be equipped with Yolov3 for waste object detection and classification, thereby facilitating effective waste collection.
Resolving the power crises requires the combination of different individual renewable energy sources so that one source can compensate for another. Unfortunately, renewable energy sources are not always available at certain times making their use problematic. To solve this uncertainty, it is important to combine independent renewable energy sources and determine the right set of the renewable energy mix that is economical and reliable. The sources of renewable energy data are solar PV, wind, battery, and biomass. Different scenarios of renewable energy mix or combination considered are wind–biomass–battery, solar PV–wind–biomass, PV–biomass–battery, and solar PV–wind–biomass–battery. Knowing the economic and reliable impact of these combinations helps to make the best investment decision. The nature-inspired optimization is utilized as the methodology to determine the feasible dimension, economic, and reliability of the energy mix. Historical energy-related data for one year were obtained from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and was used to evaluate the hybrid renewable energy systems. The result shows that SSP guaranteed optimal economic costs and satisfied the reliability constraints for wind–biomass–battery system, solar PV–wind–biomass system, PV–biomass–battery, and PV–wind–biomass–battery. The outcomes suggests that SSP can provide optimal result and therefore calls for researchers to further explore the potential of integrating this algorithm in their optimization approach for solar PV–wind–biomass–battery hybrid system.
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