Sergei Sobyanin: 10 Pixel cleaner robots started working in Moscow parks
10 autonomous Pixel robots are doing routine cleaning of walking paths in Kuzminki, Sokolniki and 50-Letiya Oktyabrya parks, Sergei Sobyanin announced in his blog.
Pixel robots are Moscow’s first unmanned street cleaners. Their testing started in late April 2023. They were deployed at Digital Business Space (CDP) in Pokrovka Street and Rudnevo industrial park. The next batch of tests took place in late December when robots started cleaning in Kuzminki park.
“That was another success. So we decided to not only leave them permanently in the park, but to expand our experiment by increasing the number of robots to 12 and the number of venues for cleaning to 5,” said Moscow Mayor.
The cleaner robot was developed by one of the Lomonosov Cluster residents and a participant of Moscow Innovation Cluster.
Pixels have a set of hook-on replaceable tools. This makes the robots capable to function all year round in almost any weather: they shovel snow in winter and sweep and wash walking paths in summer. One battery charge is enough for 16 hours. The robot moves at a working speed of 5 km/h, with a maximum of 10 km/h.
“Pixels are electrically powered, so they are good for the environment. They are also almost noiseless, so they can clean the streets even at night,” added Mr. Sobyanin.
The routes for Pixels are assigned in the control center; after they finish working, they go back to their base on their own. The machine vision systems — lidars, radars, sensors, overview and stereo cameras make the cleaner robots safe for people and animals. When encountering an obstacle, the robot recognizes it instantly and follows a preset algorithm. If a Pixel meets a human, for instance, it will stop and resume working after the person walks away. If it comes across a parked car, a baby stroller or a scooter, it will go carefully around them.
The developer plans to start mass production in the second half of 2024. That will make it possible to start gradually introducing the robots into Moscow’s urban economy.