Human-robot collaboration for automatic garbage removal

An easy task, such as emptying the trash bin, is essential and necessary for the health, safety and well-being of the occupants in commercial buildings. There have been developed smart bins that can measure and report the exact amount of garbage and alert for pickup. However a drawback is that they still require people to dispose the garbage. This type of work can be seen as non value-added work and a general waste of time. Thus in this paper, we investigate how a mobile robot and other Industry 4.0 technologies can be applied to automate and optimize the transportation of garbage in larger buildings. Our system combines a smart bin with a mobile robot. The smart bin measures the garbage's weight and volume while a mobile robot transports the bin around for automatic disposal. The system has been developed, in close cooperation with sanitation workers, with the goal to reduce non value-added work. The proposed solution, even though experimental, turns out to be a more cost-effective solution as well.