Chinese Startup Readies Robotic Street Sweeper

Yangzhou Lingtan Environmental Protection Technology Ltd. has developed a self-driving street sweeper that the Chinese company aims to sell worldwide.

The startup, which was formed in January 2018, has completed a three-month pilot program near its headquarters in China’s Jiangsu province. Lingtan says it has received orders to build 200 of the small robotic vehicles.

Several other Chinese companies, including tech giant Baidu Inc., also are developing and testing autonomous garbage trucks.

Lingtan’s devices, which use advanced camera and video processors rather than more expensive radar and lidar, are programmed to clean the streets and pick up liter. The sweepers can operate for 10 hours at a time or until the truck is full, according to the supplier. It isn’t clear how the vehicles are powered.

The camera systems are teamed with artificial intelligence, which Lingtan says enables them to make 30 trillion calculations and analyze 400 images per second. The company claims this allows the vehicles to detect and analyze 4,000 objects per second, enabling them to sort various plastics, glass and burnable waste.

Lingtan hopes to begin leasing its trucks to building management and city governments by year-end and ramp-up sales to 100,000 units by 2025. The company currently is soliciting investors to develop a next-generation vehicle.

The startup also is developing algorithms for autonomous fire engines, snowplows and self-driving vehicles for security and military applications.