Volvo Makes A Push For Robot Garbage Men

Volvo is in the automotive business, which means there’s an image the company likely wants to uphold. Ideally, they want their machines to be associated with quality and reliability, and would gladly shrug off anything that compromises that. But Volvo’s willing to put that image in danger, because now they’re eyeing the marvelous world of garbage collection. in their defense, the plan is to roll out robots to handle the task.


The company announced that it would team up with several universities and the waste management firm Renova to spearhead ROAR, or Robot-based Autonomous Refuse-handling. While the plan would still include human overseers, robots would do the legwork and lug garbage from curbs to trucks. If the technology evolves enough, then it’s not unreasonable to imagine that the entire process will be automated.

Testing is slated to begin in June 2016. There’s plenty of work to be done in the meantime, but it’s worth noting that Volvo is putting the machines’ development in the hands of the associated university students; graphics, control panels, operating systems, and even the robot itself will be offloaded to excited young teams. It’s a major opportunity, and a potentially incredible advance, for such a dirty job.