Autonomous sweeper from Berlin startup approved for public road use in Singapore

Autonomous sweeper from Berlin startup approved for public road use in Singapore

Published: 15-01-2021 11:50:00 | By: Pie Kamau | hits: 4093 | Tags:

The autonomous compact sweeper "Donner", developed by a consortium led by ENWAY and Bucher Municipal, has passed the Land Transport Authority's approval test for autonomous vehicles for use on public roads. Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) begun trial runs of autonomous road sweepers on public roads to make the city-state cleaner and more sustainable. 

Donner is based on Bucher Municipal's fully electric CityCat 2020ev. In cooperation with Nanyang Technological UniversitySembwaste Pte Ltd, and Wong Fong Engineering Works (1988) Pte Ltd, the team in Singapore adapted the existing ENWAY technology for use in public domains.

The project is part of NEA's ongoing efforts to drive innovation and diffusion of technology and improve the environmental services industry. Autonomous technology for street cleaning can improve productivity in supply operations and optimize road use. The project is supported by The National Robotics Programme Office under the Autonomous Environmental Service Vehicles for Singapore grant.

The self-driving sweepers are monitored remotely via a teleoperations center, where cleaning routes and times are determined and adjusted if necessary. During the trial runs, the autonomous sweepers must have a safety driver on board to meet the strict operating protocols. Tests on public roads will be conducted in a progressive manner and progress to regular timings during which the autonomous sweeper cleans parallel to everyday traffic.

enway.ai/de