Finland-based Trombia Technologies has launched the world’s first, high-power, autonomous street sweeper, the Trombia Free, which uses less than 15% of the power required by current sweeper technologies, according to the company.
It said the breakthrough with this new technology ‘unlocks the potential’ for mass-electrification and carbon-neutralization of one of the heaviest vehicle technologies currently in use.
The units are equipped with an all-weather autonomous, lidar-based, machine vision technology. The company claims its advanced algorithm development enables accurate and safe localization in all-weather conditions.
“We think about the more than three million CO2 metric tons of carbon emissions that high-power diesel-fueled suction street sweepers around the world produce annually. The current vehicle technology relies on suction performance that was invented in the 1950s. We simply cannot enter 2020’s green and sustainable era with such outdated solution. With the globally patented Trombia technology we are able to take down the power requirement dramatically, so turning it into a beautiful and powerful, electrified and autonomous device has been an exciting journey to this day,” said Antti Nikkanen, CEO, Trombia Technologies.
The company’s autonomous product is scheduled to be rolled-out via a pilot program in 2021 with production planned for 2022.
