BinBot Final Blog

 

Final Blog - BinBot Project

The BinBot project was designed as a smart recycling system that combines data processing, cloud storage, and dashboard analytics to encourage recycling through competition and gamification. The overall team design focused on creating a system where recycling events could be tracked, processed, and visualised through live leaderboards based on the Irish Deposit Return Scheme.

My main contribution to the team design was building the backend data pipeline and analytics system using Node-RED, Google Sheets and Looker Studio. I developed the NodeRED flows that process recycling events, assign deposit values to containers, and automatically log the data into Google Sheets. I also structured the Google Sheets data so it could integrate correctly with Looker Studio for dashboard visualisation.



In Looker Studio I created dashboards and visualisations including school leaderboards, county rankings, bin-level analytics, KPI scorecards and trend charts based on total euro value returned. This allowed the system to move beyond simple data logging and become a more interactive and engaging analytics platform.



One of the biggest things I learned during this project was how important teamwork and communication are within a technical project. Working in a team allowed us to divide responsibilities across different parts of the system, which made development faster and more efficient. I enjoyed collaborating on ideas and solving technical problems together, especially when integrating different technologies into one overall system.

At the same time, I also realised there are areas I can improve on when working in a team. Sometimes I focused too heavily on technical implementation and spent too much time trying to perfect certain features instead of communicating progress earlier. Going forward, I want to improve my communication, and overall coordination within a team environment.

Overall this project gave me valuable experience in teamwork, system integration, data analytics, and low-code development tools. It also showed how technologies such as Node-RED, Google Sheets, and Looker Studio can be combined to create a complete end-to-end solution for a real-world problem.



a link to the full demo can be found here: https://youtu.be/iCF-25sSbb0?si=6wT5xNRpzwHicCUL



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