Cue the Jetsons theme song because our mornings are about to get a whole lot more automated.
The Volvo Group recently announced their newest project called ROAR (RObot-based Autonomous Refuse handling), which will literally leave all the dirty work to robots.
Garbage day will start as usual, with truck drivers loudly crawling along our side streets. The twist will come when they stop at the end or the driveway. That’s when the driver will deploy little robot assistants to collect and empty our trash bins. The trucks themselves will have an operating system to instruct the bots.
Three universities are working with Volvo on the project: Penn State University, Chalmers University of Technology and fellow Swedish institute, Mälardalen University. Renova, a Swedish recycling company, is also taking part.
Sub-systems designed to make automated garbage collection a reality
Chalmers University’s Automation Research group will tackle the trucks’ operating system and a sub-system where a quadcopter autonomously detects the refuse bins to be collected and emptied within a determined area.
Mälardalen University will be designing the robots. “It is exciting in which we are combining advanced research with our training in robotics,” says Mikael Ekström, project leader. ”Many students will work on this project, and it is a huge opportunity for them to learn both the technology and how to work in teams and in a real industrial context.”
Penn State’s Transportation Institute will be designing the graphics, communication systems and the control panel for Renova’s truck design.
This idea is an exciting prospect, but this team isn’t the first to work on automating trash collection. Robotic arm garbage trucks are already a common sight on many city streets.
It seems the greatest advantage of introducing robots is i) reduced noise when compared the robot arm technology and ii) the ability to roam farther to collect the bins. Chalmers University points out some interesting possibilities concerning what this project could mean for automation as a whole.
“A further step to extend and improve the service we experience today, might be to combine vehicles and peripheral support devices to join autonomous driving with autonomous loading and unloading of goods. In the future, an autonomous electrified distribution truck might for example work together with support devices to enable autonomous loading and unloading of goods to and from our doorstep just hours after we ordered a pick-up or delivery service online.”
I’ll say it again, cue The Jetsons theme song.
The ROAR project is funded by Volvo Group Academic Partner Program and is scheduled to continue until June 2016.