Drone-Enabled AI Edge Computing and 5G Communication Network for Real-Time Coastal Litter Detection

Coastal litter is a severe environmental issue impacting marine ecosystems and coastal communities in Thailand, with plastic pollution posing one of the most urgent challenges. Every month, millions of tons of plastic waste enter the ocean, where items such as bottles, cans, and other plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade, threatening marine life through ingestion, entanglement, and habitat destruction. To address this issue, we deploy drones equipped with high-resolution cameras and sensors to capture detailed coastal imagery for assessing litter distribution. This study presents the development of an AI-driven coastal litter detection system using edge computing and 5G communication networks. The AI edge server utilizes YOLOv8 and a recurrent neural network (RNN) to enable the drone to detect and classify various types of litter, such as bottles, cans, and plastics, in real-time. High-speed 5G communication supports seamless data transmission, allowing efficient monitoring. We evaluated drone performance under optimal flying heights above ground of 5 m, 7 m, and 10 m, analyzing accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Results indicate that the system achieves optimal detection at an altitude of 5 m with a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 0.98 cm/pixel, yielding an F1-score of 98% for cans, 96% for plastics, and 95% for bottles. This approach facilitates real-time monitoring of coastal areas, contributing to marine ecosystem conservation and environmental sustainability.