Automatically clean!

In collaboration with the Abfallwirtschaftsbetrieb München (AWM), students from the Munich University of Applied Sciences have developed a business case as part of the Co-Innovation Lab to automate the manual cleaning of mobile waste compactors.

Mobile waste compactors have become an indispensable part of German waste management operations. They are used not only at recycling centers but also at major events such as the Oktoberfest. The advantage of these compactors is that waste and recyclables can be compacted more efficiently. The space saved during storage and transport enables economical and environmentally friendly disposal.

As part of the project, the consulting team of the Co-Innovation Lab at Munich University of Applied Sciences cooperated with “Kea Robotics” . The startup from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) specializes in the development of modular robots. Automating the cleaning process would relieve the employees of the waste management service provider AWM, as the robot would take over the manual, repetitive and physically demanding cleaning using a high-pressure cleaner.

Gerald Stutz (Head of Innovations and Projects at AWM) was extremely satisfied with the cooperation with the Co-Innovation Lab and the results of the project: “Technical, organizational and business aspects were intensively examined. As a result, the work result represents a good basis for further planning in this area.

In collaboration with Gerald Stutz and Roman Hölzl (co-founder & managing director of Kea Robotics), the three student consultants of the Co-Innovation Lab Amel Fazlovic, Philipp Rathke and Florian Zinsbacher – with coaching from Prof. Holger Günzel – prepared a decision document that shows AWM whether the robots are suitable for use in the cleaning process. The decision paper confirmed a basic technical feasibility and shows financial cost advantages that can be achieved by automating the process.

Digitizing Munich’s Used Clothing Drives – The Co-Innovation Lab Makes Recycling Fit for the Future

Students at Munich University of Applied Sciences are paving the way for digitization in municipal used clothing collection and enabling plannable recycling with the help of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

Munich: Students in close contact with the collection of old clothes. If you want to achieve change and sustainability, you have to enter the field of the current situation yourself. Marlene Piper during her accompaniment of the old clothes collection.

As part of a student consulting project of the Co-Innovation Lab at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, an interdisciplinary team of students developed a holistic concept for emptying used clothing containers at the Abfallwirtschaftsbetrieb München (AWM) in line with demand. The aim was to optimize the previously rigid emptying schedule, which takes into account the respective emptying requirements of the containers, and thus to improve the quality of the clothing and make more efficient use of existing resources. The focus was thus on moving toward digitization with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), thereby creating data-based, demand-driven planability with a digital planning tool.

The team consisted of students from three degree programs at Munich University of Applied Sciences and was divided into a consulting team consisting of Mahboob Elahi Noor, Gilbert Muhumuza and Marlene Piper and a development team consisting of industrial engineering students Agnesa Xhemaili, Majlinda Sllamniku and Stefan An. Prof. Dr. Holger Günzel and Prof. Dr. Olav Hinz assisted the team as coaches.

The client Rudolph Schmid (department head of bulky waste and depot container collection AWM) was impressed by the solution that was finally presented: “From the department’s point of view, all requirements for the project, which was presented in an exciting presentation, were exceeded.”