If it weren't for the people collecting our trash, we'd be swimming in our own waste in no time. And this isn't a supposition, it's a fact: a four-day strike of the sanitation workers in Paris last year turned the city into a garbage pit.
So even though this job is often quoted as the lowest form of employment and used by parents to scare their kids into sticking with high school, it's also one of the gears that need to turn for a city to remain functional. We're not here to raise the number of employees in this field, but we just want to make sure we're all on the same page regarding the importance of waste collection.
However crucial it may be, it still wouldn't qualify as the first field to test the advancements of the autonomous technology - or so you'd think. Together with undergrads from Chalmers University of Technology, Mälardalen University and Penn State University, Volvo had different plans. The multinational team came up with a system that can collect and empty the trash cans into the garbage truck completely autonomous, apart from the driver in the truck (but he shouldn't feel too safe about his job either).
The system provides an overwhelming show of forces for the simple task of taking a bin from its location and hooking it to the back of the truck where the classic hydraulic systems take care of the rest. The first iteration of this system had the wheeled robot (called ROARy) wandering the neighborhood in search of the trash cans. Now, though, there is a flying drone that scans the area and identifies the exact location of the bins, relaying it to ROARy. Slowly but surely, the robot makes its way to the location, making sure to avoid any obstacles in the way by means of a LIDAR system and other sensors, including cameras.
The whole process takes about forever, but the technology behind it - and most particularly the interconnectivity between the vehicles involved - is impressive, and it could find more suitable uses in the future (which is probably the whole point of this demonstration). As for waste disposal, we'd say things are good the way they are right now, and there's no need for a complete automatization of this type. A few more strikes, though, and municipalities could be giving Volvo a call inquiring about ROARy's availability.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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