Posted on 09/17/2015 11:58:12 PM PDT by Vision Thing
Volvo has a vision about rubbish. They want to replace bin collectors with autonomous robots, and they want to do it by summer 2016.
(snip)
The drones will accompany a dustcart, itself developed by another partner, the recycling company Renova, with a single driver who would sit, clean and at ease, in his or her cab as the robots do the dirty heavy lifting. The driver would not have direct control over the drones, but would act as their supervisor.
(snip)
The image that accompanies the announcement of the project shows robots that look like a cross between a Segway and Wall-E, peacefully going about the business of collecting wheelie bins from a broad pavement outside a modern bungalow. It’s an idyllic vision of spacious, modern urban Scandinavia or suburban America, but a question remains over whether the project’s robots would be able to deal with Britain’s ancient narrow streets and piles of soft bin bags.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Bin collectors = trash men in American English.
I’m surprised the PC crowd hasn’t picked up on the label. It makes it sound like less of a dirty job.
I’m not surprised. I grew up in Chicago watching three guys (including the driver, who never left the cab) empty trashcans into the back of a truck, only later to see the driver of my garbage truck never get out of the cab, and a “robotic” claw doing the work.
This appears to take the concept one step further in that the robot goes to the side of the house and grabs the can as oppose to putting it beside the street.
Many municpalites are moving to one person truck with pick up arms., but the cans have to be at the street lined up correctly.
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