Advanced Drone System Designed for Effective Dog Waste Cleaning
An innovator has developed an advanced drone system designed for effective cleaning for dogs.
The Poopcopter, invented by Keileb Alson, can be directed to the place of dog waste using a camera and a garbage collection system. Instead of a complex robotic hand, Poopcopter uses a container in the form of a bell with gears that open and close during rotation. This allows for the effective collection of waste, although commercial production of the device has not been confirmed.
According to Olson, this is “the world’s first air drone to clean the drone, using the drone, the 3D printing mechanism and machine learning technology”, which is confirmed in the video on YouTube. Watch the video here.
Olson’s journey to automate dog waste cleaning began with a machine learning system that analyzed records from surveillance cameras to pinpoint when his dog defecated on the street. Despite the system being able to notify this event, Olson aimed for complete automation of the process. He developed a robot with a laser that indicated the exact place of waste, which eased their search, but cleaning still required manual labor.
Further research led Olson to create a robot with a laser guidance system that not only showed where the waste was located, but also paved the optimal path to collect them. However, cleaning still required manual intervention.
Unsatisfied with these limitations, Olson focused on a more universal solution, leading to the creation of Poopcopter – a drone that can find and collect waste with minimal human involvement.
Poopcopter uses computer vision and machine learning technologies to scan a given area, such as a rear yard. The external device or cloud system receives data from the drone’s camera and analyzes the territory in search of waste.
After detecting waste, the drone performs an accurate landing next to the garbage, aided by machine learning models that ensure precise positioning.
Olson highlights the technological challenges, especially the need for precise landing accuracy, as most drones rely on GPS which has only a few meters of accuracy – insufficient for this task.
The design of Poopcopter simplifies the cleaning process with its bell-shaped container and rotating gears. When the drone lands, the gears open to collect waste. Fast rotation in the opposite direction releases the garbage once collected.
Olson has conducted several iterations of the