Self-driving road sweepers will be trialled in Singapore following approval of utility vehicle ‘Donner’ for use on public roads.
The driverless sweeper has been designed by a consortium led by Berlin-based self-driving utility vehicle manufacturer Enway and Swiss sweeper manufacturer Bucher Municipal.
Based on Bucher Municipal’s fully electric CityCat 2020ev and featuring adapted existing Enway technology, the sweeper recently passed the Land Transport Authority’s approval test for use on public roads.
The self-driving sweepers are monitored remotely via a teleoperations centre, where cleaning routes and times are determined and adjusted if necessary. During the trial the autonomous sweepers must have a safety driver on board to meet operating protocols.
Futhermore, tests on public roads will be conducted in a progressive manner and following a successful trial will be rolled out to clean parallel to everyday traffic at regular intervals.
The project is part of Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) ongoing efforts to use technology to improve the environmental services industry.
NEA said autonomous technology for street cleaning can improve productivity in supply operations and optimise road use.
The project is supported by The National Robotics Programme Office under the Autonomous Environmental Service Vehicles for Singapore grant.
