Capra Robotics Uses Skylark to Autonomously Navigate Sidewalks and Paths to Remove Cigarette Butts

Swift-DT-CaseStudies-Capra

“At Capra Robotics, we’re creating a cleaner environment by eliminating cigarette butts from our cities. Precise positioning with centimeter accuracy is required to find butts on the sidewalk. Skylark provides the GNSS position to our control system.”

Niels Jul Jacobsen, CEO, Capra Robotics

Large machine sweepers struggle to operate on these terrains and cannot locate and eradicate the tiny bits of trash easily. Meanwhile, human labor is time and cost-intensive (Capra estimates the cost to be $0.40 per butt, and with more than 6 billion cigarettes smoked annually in Denmark alone, those cents add up quickly).

Enter Butty, Capra Robotics’ small robot equipped to navigate autonomously and remove unsightly and toxic cigarette butts. This cigarette eliminator uses cameras and AI for trash detection, sensors for navigation and is also equipped with a suction unit to absorb the butts into its inbuilt trash container. Additionally, it has a mobile platform to monitor its activity. Given the environments it operates in, such as sidewalks and paths, precision navigation is an essential requirement for Butty’s success.