Urban cleanliness is a central aspect of urban quality of life, influencing both the quality of life in public spaces and environmental and health aspects such as fine dust pollution. At present, the city cleaning service relies on a combination of sweepers deployed over large areas and manual cleaning work. While sweepers efficiently clean large streets and squares, they reach their limits in narrow alleyways or pedestrian zones. In these hard-to-reach zones, cleaners take over the manual cleaning - a physically demanding, time-consuming and labour-intensive process, especially at peak times with high pedestrian volumes. At the same time, urban service providers are facing a growing shortage of labour, making it increasingly challenging to maintain a consistently high level of cleanliness. Against this backdrop, the use of automation technologies is becoming increasingly important. The market already offers the first autonomous solutions, but these are mainly limited to large machines or indoor areas and are less suitable for confined, complex urban environments.
This is where SWEG - Autonomous Sweeping Robot Based On Galileo comes in: The aim is to further develop the technology of an existing MOTION-HUB GmbH prototype into a compact, autonomous sweeping robot for outdoor use. Both hardware and software components are to be researched and optimised. Key areas of innovation include GNSS-based navigation using the new GALILEO High Accuracy Service (HAS) and the development of a robust positioning algorithm for urban multipath environments. To this end, the combination of environment-perceiving sensors (e.g. LiDAR) with signal analysis methods based on machine learning for adaptive weighting of GNSS measurements will be investigated. Another key innovation goal is the development of an automated dirt pick-up detection system during the sweeping process. This is to be transferred into dynamic cleanliness maps using GNSS-supported georeferencing, which in turn serve as the basis for intelligent, adaptive route planning. This means that cleaning performance can not only be documented, but also optimised in line with demand.
The intended results of the project include:
- the development and laboratory testing of an outdoor sweeping robot with autonomous control,
- new findings on urban GNSS navigation with GALILEO HAS, taking into account LOS/NLOS classification,
- the design and prototypical implementation of a system for area-based cleanliness assessment,
- as well as smart route planning based on the cleanliness map.
In addition to technological innovation, the project also contributes to several sustainability goals, in particular SDG 8 (‘Decent work and economic growth’) by increasing productivity through automation, and SDG 11 (‘Sustainable cities and communities’) through low-emission, low-noise and resource-efficient cleaning systems. Overall, the project contributes to strengthening the technological competitiveness of the participating companies and research institutions and creating the basis for new products, business models and scientific follow-up projects.
