ボルボは先日、「ROAR（全自動ごみ回収ロボット）」の開発計画が試作機のテスト段階に入ったことを公式サイトで発表した。ROARはごみ収集車の後部に搭載され、自動でごみ箱の中身を回収するロボットで、作業員がごみ箱の中身を収集車のホッパーへ入れる作業をしなくて済むようになる。
当初のコンセプトでは、ロボットの操縦はGPSやLiDAR（レーザーによって物体の位置、距離、形状を特定するシステム）、加速度計を使い、ごみ回収地域の地図やごみ箱が設置されているであろう場所を頼りに行うというものだった。しかし、今回の新しいバージョンでは、ごみ収集車のルーフに設置したドローンを飛ばすことで、これがROARの"上空からの目"となり、推測ではなく、実際にごみ箱が設置されている場所を認識できるようになった。
ボルボは、チャルマース工科大学、メーラダーレン大学、ペンシルバニア州立大学の学生と協力し、たった４ヶ月で試作機を開発した。「我々は様々なものがよりオートメーション化された未来を見据えている」とボルボ・グループのロボット開発プロジェクトリーダー、ペールラージ・ゴトバル氏は公式サイトで語っている。また「この計画により我々の想像力が刺激され、未来の輸送ソリューションのために新しいコンセプトを試すことができる」とも述べている。
※注：この記事はAutoblogの姉妹サイト『Engadget』に掲載されたAndrew Tarantola記者による記事を転載したもの。
By Engadget
翻訳：日本映像翻訳アカデミー
（2016年3月2日 Autobog日本版「【ビデオ】ボルボ、全自動ごみ回収ロボットの試作機を公開」より転載）
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