Autonomous Cleaning Vehicles Hit The Road In Singapore

According to Traffic Technology Today, Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) and Ministry of Transport (MOT) have awarded projects to two consortia for the design, development and trial of Autonomous Environmental Service Vehicles (AESVs) for street cleaning.

The flagship projects are the first to be conducted under the NEA’s Environmental Robotics Program. This aims to better optimize resources, drive innovation, push widespread technology adoption, and improve productivity across the Environmental Services (ES) sector.

The winning teams were selected out of a total of eight proposals, based on their potential to fulfill the government’s objectives for AESV deployment, as well as their prior experience in developing AV technologies and familiarity with road cleaning operations in Singapore.

Both projects will apply autonomous vehicle technology to commercial mechanical road sweepers. The objective is to improve productivity in utility operations and alleviate traffic congestion by shifting utility operations to off-peak hours. Each of the projects will be carried out over a duration of 18 months, and will comprise a development phase over a period of 12 months, followed by a proof-of-concept (POC) trial over a six-month period.