UK engineers to develop autonomous electric street sweeper

The company, which is behind the pod technology in use at Heathrow Terminal 5 and also involved in the TRL-funded GATEway research project, will be joining forces with outdoor cleaning specialist Johnston Sweepers and machine vision expert Fusion Processing Ltd to develop an entirely new vehicle.

Westfield CEO Julian Turner told The Engineer that the initial aim of the project is to develop technology that could be used for the detection and removal of foreign objects and debris from airport runways and aprons, but that the system could also be used to improve the efficiency of road sweeping.

Damage caused by foreign objects at airports — which range from rogue screws to items of luggage — is estimated to cost the aerospace industry around $4 billion per year, and many debris detection systems still rely heavily on the human eye. Turner said that the use of autonomous systems equipped with advanced sensing equipment could help reduce the chance of human error and improve detection rates.