I enjoy building - and failing - in public. Here, you will find my thoughts and progress on building Sweeper. Below, you will find some background information about the business, the process of building Sweeper, how it works, and also what has not worked or complications we faced.
Sweeper is a hardware startup based in Amsterdam. We help businesses clean and maintain their properties using robots & drones equipped with computer vision and sensors to detect trash. We are currently in the ideation phase and looking for partners to help build the first prototypes and refine our ucse cases. If you are interested, please get in touch.
The idea for Sweeper came from my experiences living in dense, urban spaces like London, Amsterdam, Perth, Vancouver, and Dublin and constantly encountering trash. Trash in public spaces that not only is unpleasent, smells but also pollutes our living space and often contributes to further pollution of our environment. That consquence I experienced first hand when specifically the well-documented issue of plastic trash became a regular part of my holidays in some of the most beautiful places of our planet, like beaches in Cuba, Thailand, the Maldives, and Australia.
Luckily, there are many awesome organizations already working on cleaning up our oceans, rivers, and beaches!
But why not start earlier? What if drones and small robots could pick up trash before it even enters our natural environment? This is the problem Sweeper aims to solve.While our initial vision was to use robots and drones for cleaning public spaces
We discovered an exciting opportunity to make an immediate impact that could also drive future company growth with a clearer value-proposition:
Enhancing the maintenance work of commercial properties like shopping malls, zoos, and amusement parks, where we can operate in a clear legal framework and low complexity environment. This approach allows us to start making a difference right away - creating cleaner, more enjoyable environments for businesses and their customers.
Bringing Sweeper to life means overcoming a number of legal, logistical and operational challenges! But most importantly: Hard engineering problems. Luckily, only hard problems are worth solving. And while there will be many challenges, we are confident that we can overcome them with the right team, time and money. Most of the hardware and software issues, like computer vision, drones and robot navigation in complex environments, sorting algorithms, and user management systems, are pretty mature by now and often solved with off-the-shelf components.
In Europe, the legal framework for drones and robots is still unclear and underdeveloped. Focusing on private, commercial use, will help us work with our customers, local authorities and EU-regulators to mature asnd develop the legal framework for private drone and robot use further, to ensure safe, reliable and efficient use of these technologies.
