Students design street litter robot
25 August 2009
The newly established robotics centre, a cooperative project between the University of Twente and industry partners, has recently completed their first concrete project. A third-year student project produced a machine that can recognise and clean up cans, bottles and other street litter. The Stichting Nederlands Schoon (Foundation for a Cleaner Netherlands) was so enthusiastic that the robot is coming on the market.
The Autonome Zwerfafval Opruim Robot (AZOR), an autonomous
litter cleanup robot, is a fully automatic operating device,
equipped with cameras, sensors, two grip arms and a litter
container. A multidisciplinary team of bachelor's and master's
industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,
informatics and mechatronics students developed the robot and are
now working on developing their prototype further. The test model
was recently unveiled at a waste management and cleaning industry
trade fair. The students hope to release the robot onto the
market late in 2010.
