Article content
In latest news about self-driving vehicles in Estonia, a company called Lumebot has just announced the release of autonomous snow-shovelling robots for public use. The first robots have already taken to the streets from the beginning of November this year in the Tehnopol Science and Business Campus in Tallinn. Meanwhile, the company is mapping international markets as well.
Lumebot is an autonomous street cleaning robot that can work regardless of the season. It can clean areas from trash, leaves etc and also maintain the level of cleanliness. While, of course, in Estonia there would presumably be strong interest in the snow-shovelling functionality. It’s ideal for public spaces like parking lots and parks or university campuses. According to co-founder Kaspar Kikerpill, the solution is aimed more at business and university campuses and real-estate management companies. However, it would be equally time- and cost-saving for local municipalities as well. The snow-shovelling robots can complete their tasks without any external sensors and are ready to work from the word “Go!”.
One robot weighs 500 kilograms and it can work 2 hours straight, cleaning 5 000 square metres or 12 kilometres of sidewalks. It can work in a fleet and can be equipped with both, a snowplow or a vacuum sweeper. “Employing a fleet of street cleaning robots will help optimise investment in other maintenace machinery as well as workforce, as it is effectively a machine and a worker combined,” said Kikerpill.
The Lumebot is, of course, equipped with a multitude of sensors to ensure the safety of pedestrians and other moving vehicles alike, as well as to protect the robot itself. For extra protection, the first robots roaming around the Tehnopol Campus will also be accompanied by human supervision in the beginning. Additionally, it comes with other practical features like a gravel dispenser to fight ice in winter, and it produces no noise pollution.
