The Neighbourhood of the Future

Four Valencian companies have created the first system that integrates parcel delivery and urban waste collection through the use of robots and 5G connectivity.

● Pilot tests of the system will be carried out in 2021 at the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia and in the future Barrio La Pinada.
The project, funded by the Agència Valenciana de I’Innovació, has a budget of more than €800,000.
● The system helps to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection to which courier and parcel delivery workers are exposed.

Barrio La Pinada, Robotnik Automation, Fivecomm and Industrias Alegre are working together on the AUDERE project, funded by the Agència Valenciana de l’Innovació, thanks to which they will design and develop the first intelligent system that integrates the collection and sorting of municipal solid waste (MSW) with a last-mile logistics service, using autonomous robots and 5G connectivity, which will bring numerous benefits to citizens, businesses and administration.

With the implementation of this project, which has a budget of €802,865, the aim is to encourage waste reduction, minimise the carbon footprint and reduce noise pollution in cities. In addition it will avoid unpleasant odours and facilitate the interaction of the system with other smart city monitoring solutions, not forgetting a significant reduction in costs.

The new system will be launched at the end of January 2021 and will initially be tested at the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia and in the future Barrio La Pinada. According to Óscar David Sánchez, head of innovation projects at Barrio La Pinada and Mosaik Urban Systems, “the project arose from the need, in Barrio La Pinada, to reinvent the way in which waste is transported in the urban environment, but we soon realised the potential of autonomous robots to develop other activities, such as parcel delivery, and the possibility of taking this solution to other usage scenarios and municipalities”.

In response to this situation, the consortium that makes up the AUDERE project was created, bringing together leading Valencian companies in the robotics sector (Robotnik), sustainable urban development (Barrio La Pinada), the manufacture of plastic injection parts (Industrias Alegre) and advanced communications (Fivecomm).

The aim of this project is to respond to two of the great challenges facing cities: on the one hand, waste management and collection, minimising the inconvenience and environmental impact of transporting this waste. In Spain, urban waste management companies collected 21.6 million tonnes in 2015, which in per capita terms means around 466.4 kilograms of waste per person per year.

And on the other hand, to provide a solution to last-mile logistics needs in the face of the increase in demand for parcel transport caused by the increase in e-commerce, whose market share has grown by 37% in Spain in the last 3 years and is expected to increase to 11.4% by 2023.

Finally, thanks to the use of autonomous robots, AUDERE can contribute to reducing the risk of coronavirus infection to which workers in these urban services, both in courier and parcel delivery and waste collection, are exposed.

Mosaik Urban Systems is the innovation team of Barrio La Pinada, which in addition to giving life to the solutions of the eco-neighbourhood, also helps developers and building rehabilitators to build in a more sustainable way, designing and implementing integrated and reliable solutions that improve the quality of life of people, cities and the planet in terms of economic, social and environmental profitability.

Robotnik designs, manufactures and markets industrial robots and mobile manipulators. Founded in 2002, Robotnik is the European leader in mobile robotics, as well as a reference in the sector worldwide. It is currently present in more than 50 countries, including international markets such as Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, USA, France, Germany and Italy.

Fivecomm is a Spanish SME based in Valencia, whose mission is to enable the adoption of 5G technology in industry for its digitalisation. It was founded in 2019 by members of the Universitat Politècnica de València who are considered national and international benchmarks in 5G technology. Fivecomm’s solutions offer more robust and secure communications, real-time applications, instant access to services and applications, much faster data transmissions, scalable differentiation of the quality of service adaptable to the needs of each user and greater capacity in terms of the number of connections.

Industrias Alegre is a family company, 100% Valencian, founded in 1953 by Vicente Alegre, a mould maker by profession, whose first job was in a mould workshop, an activity that continues today. Its current main activity is the manufacture of plastic injection moulded parts for the automotive sector, where it acts as a full service global supplier of the design of the part, the manufacture of its mould, its production and even its packaging, the latter being its second business unit. And throughout this development process, innovation has been and continues to be key.