Chinese high-tech helps sweep world off its feet

China-made autonomous sweepers are grabbing attention all over the globe, as the country uses its technological expertise to unleash new quality productive forces in the field of sanitation.

"We specialize in autonomous sweepers. Demand has surged in recent years and we have started to export our products," said Tang Yanye, vice-president of product and operations, and partner at Autowise.ai, a Shanghai-based high-tech company that is among many "little giant" firms in the city.

The company has received the world's first road testing license for autonomous sweepers and is the first in China to achieve commercialization of autonomous sweepers overseas.

"I was just on a business trip in Dubai, where we brought our autonomous sweeper to local clients. While they had seen autonomous vehicles and traditional sweepers, this was the first time that they had seen the two combined, and they were amazed," said Tang.

The company's latest product, launched in March, integrates three sanitation tasks — sweeping, road spraying, and garbage transportation — and is able to cut overall sanitation operation costs by up to 70 percent.

One of its autonomous sweepers, which has been operating along the Jumeirah Beach bikeway in Dubai, cleans the road, dumps trash and returns to the parking space automatically.

Equipped with technologies including LIDAR, millimeter-wave radars, cameras and high-precision positioning, it can achieve precise edge fitting, safe obstacle avoidance, emergency avoidance, flexible turning and direction switching during operation.

In fact, its advanced technology and features have attracted the attention of several local residents as well as visitors.

Meanwhile, in Preston, England, Autowise.ai's autonomous sweeper is helping James Hall — a major local supermarket chain — improve efficiency and save costs.

The vehicles operate efficiently at James Hall's logistics distribution center, especially during extreme weather. After completing the daily cleaning tasks, the vehicles autonomously drive to the garbage collection area and complete dumping task by themselves.

Autowise.ai has realized commercialization in more than 30 cities, including Wilhelmshaven and Duisburg in Germany, Phoenix in the United States, Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

"What we are witnessing is a surge in demand for the application of autonomous sweepers, and we are driven by this market demand," Tang said.

He cited the example of the outdoor temperatures in the UAE in March, which go up to more than 40 C on average, and touch 50 to 60 C during peak summer.

"These conditions make it hard for sanitation workers out in such extreme weather. The issue of an aging population in Europe also causes difficulties in the recruitment of sanitation workers, and high labor costs," Tang said.

Apart from Autowise.ai, several other companies have also stepped into the autonomous sanitation sector, including Wuhu, Anhui province-based Cowarobot, US-based firm Electric Power Steering and Germany's ATR International AG.

Based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Beijing-based think tank EqualOcean estimates that the market size of autonomous sweepers in China will reach 270 billion yuan ($37.34 billion) by 2025, and the penetration rate will climb to 5 percent.

Liang Haiming, dean of Hainan University's Belt and Road Research Institute, said that unmanned sweepers made in China have advantages in automation technology, smart management and the application of new energy, which helps improve work efficiency, safety and the sustainability of city sanitation.

Zhan Junhao, founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, said: "China's unmanned sweepers have effectively saved labor costs, improved operational efficiency, and reduced safety hazards and pollutant emissions, becoming a strong support for the sanitation industry. In addition, the application scope and scale of unmanned sweepers is showing an upward trend."

In addition to sanitation, the field of autonomous driving includes limited and low-speed environments such as logistics distribution, shared travel, public transportation, ports and terminals, and mining operations, Zhan said.

"There is huge potential in the market. Next, we plan to enhance research and development that leads to the development of more products to liberate people from redundant, repetitive work, further unleashing the potential of autonomous driving," said Tang of Autowise.ai, referring to the company's business plans for the near future.